Tarek Mansour, CEO of Kalshi, has shared the news that his prediction market has raised $1bn in its latest funding round, a figure set against a company valuation of $11bn.
In a week where Polymarket Founder and CEO, Shayne Coplan, has been all over the news, competitor Kalshi was not to be outdone and now has a valuation that, for the first time, surpasses that of Coplan's firm.
Mansour announced the new financing via his personal LinkedIn profile, as is his custom, adding: "Eighteen months ago, most prediction markets were banned - until we overcame the government to set them free."
This is Kalshi's third raise of the year, with the latest coming at the beginning of October.
The ante has been upped with this landmark agreement however - in October, the prediction market platform acquired $300m worth of investment, valuing the company at $5bn.
Both the level of investment and the new valuation have now been more than doubled. In contrast, Polymarket's October investment of $2bn from New York Stock Exchange-owners, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), valued the company at $9bn.
While the two leading prediction platforms have both demonstrated rapid growth in the past year, in recent months Kalshi has been gradually edging ahead of its older sector rival on certain metrics.
In September, Mansour's company surpassed Polymarket's trading volume for the first time, despite the latter's being 20 times bigger just a year ago.
Polymarket's barring from the US has no doubt played a significant role in this shift of momentum, though consumers have been awaiting the operator's re-entry to that market since Polymarket acquired CFTC-licensed exchange QCEX in July.
The Polymarket event contract asking: "Will Polymarket US go live in 2025?" dropped as low as '69% chance' on November 25, as the process appeared to drag on.
Since then, it has ascended to 95%, following an announcement that the CFTC had issued an "Amended Order of Designation, permitting Polymarket to operate an intermediated trading platform subject to the full set of requirements applicable to federally regulated US exchanges."
Nonetheless, Polymarket's prolonged US absence may have handed Kalshi the initiative, and judging by this latest news, the company has seized it.
Kalshi now has a valuation that is within $2bn of DraftKings' $12.68bn market cap - the long-term significance of this could be far-reaching.
Earlier this month, DraftKings and market-leader FanDuel left the American Gaming Association (AGA) in an attempt to head off the threat posed by prediction markets - the AGA has been vociferous in its opposition to the growing sector, while the two sports betting giants each plan to launch rival prediction markets from December.
In his post, Mansour went on to say: "The time has finally come for prediction markets to achieve their full potential and we are intent on making that happen. To all the believers and the early adopters: thank you."
Polymarket's Shayne Coplan became the youngest self-made billionaire after Polymarket's fund-raise in October
