Kalshi raises over $1B in new funding at $22B valuation despite legal pressure

Kalshi has raised more than $1 billion in an ongoing funding round led by Coatue Management, giving the New York-based prediction market platform a valuation of about $22 billion, according to people familiar with the deal.

The financing is proceeding while the company faces legal and regulatory challenges in multiple states.

The round, which remains open, has already crossed the $1 billion mark and set a valuation roughly double Kalshi’s November Series E level of about $11 billion, per people with knowledge of the raise. Kalshi operates a federally regulated exchange where users trade contracts tied to outcomes of real-world events. The platform serves retail traders, institutional market makers and companies that use the contracts to hedge event risk.

A key difference in Kalshi vs Polymarket is that Kalshi allows crypto deposits and withdrawals but converts user balances into U.S. dollars for trading, whereas Polymarket operates on a crypto-native model and only recently widened access for U.S. users.

Investor interest has picked up alongside growth in institutional activity on the platform, according to a person familiar with the raise. The company’s annualized revenue run rate is about $1.5 billion, and trading volumes have grown with the addition of new categories, including sports markets.

Arizona prosecutors recently filed criminal charges against Kalshi’s parent entities, alleging operation of an illegal gambling business without a state license. Kalshi has called the charges “seriously flawed” and asserts that its event contracts are regulated as derivatives under the oversight of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Litigation linked to state enforcement remains active in several jurisdictions. On March 19, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit denied the platform’s emergency request for an administrative stay in a Nevada-related matter. Additionally, Kalshi was sued in California over the Khamenei market payout, with plaintiffs seeking compensatory and punitive damages in court.