KALSHI REACHES A VALUATION OF 40,000 MILLION DOLLARS AND ANNOUNCES ITS EXPANSION INTO EUROPE

Kalshi, one of the leading international forecasting market platforms, has announced a new $1 billion funding round that brings its valuation to $40 billion, a transaction that reflects the growing interest of investors in this business model.

The financing, announced on October 29, has been led by Wellington Management and Sequoia Capital, with the participation of firms such as Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue, Baillie Gifford and Morgan Stanley Investment Management.

The new valuation represents an increase of 81.8% compared to the 22,000 million dollars achieved in the previous financing round, held in May of this year.

Europe and Latin America are among the priority objectives of Kalshi's international expansion. The company intends to allocate part of the new resources to the development of financial products, the acquisition of institutional clients and the expansion of its presence in new markets.

The announcement acquires special relevance for Spain, where, as previously reported by INFOPLAY, the Directorate General for the Regulation of Gambling opened disciplinary proceedings against Kalshi and Polymarket and ordered the precautionary blocking of their websites on May 26 for allegedly operating without the corresponding administrative authorization.

The Spanish regulator's action affects platforms where users can buy and sell contracts linked to the outcome of future events, such as elections, sports competitions, economic indicators or weather events.

Kalshi claims to have surpassed $1 trillion in annualized trading volume across its platform as a whole and claims that more than 30 million accounts have been created.

The company also maintains that it concentrates more than 75% of the trading volume of the prediction markets, according to its own calculations.

These figures reflect the size that the business is reaching, although the annualized volume represents a projection based on the pace of activity and is not equivalent to the volume actually traded during a full year.

Kalshi is progressively diversifying its business beyond contracts related to sporting and political events. The company claims that its non-sports products already generate more than $1 billion in annualized revenue.

Upcoming developments include new indices, perpetual futures on individual stocks, and markets related to computing capacity costs.

Kalshi's European expansion comes at a time of growing regulatory concern about prediction markets.

As recently published by INFOPLAY, the European Securities and Markets Authority has warned that virtual private networks make it possible to circumvent the geographical restrictions of platforms such as Polymarket and Kalshi, raising questions about the effectiveness of the mechanisms used to limit access from certain countries.

The European body has also pointed out that the marketing of these products may require different authorisations depending on their legal nature.

Certain contracts could be considered as financial instruments subject to European market rules, while others may fit into national gambling laws.

In Spain, the Directorate General for the Regulation of Gambling considers that prediction markets are in the nature of gambling when betting on uncertain future results, so their operation requires the corresponding administrative authorization.

This situation raises questions about Kalshi's chances of entering the Spanish market and about the regulatory model it will have to face if it finally decides to develop its European expansion.