Luana Lopes Lara Named Youngest Self Made Female Billionaire

By: WE staff | Thursday, 4 December 2025

• Luana Lopes Lara is the founder of the prediction-market startup Kalshi
• At 29 she is reported to be the youngest self-made woman billionaire in the world
• Kalshi was valued at about $11 billion as of December 2025, after a funding round for $1 billion

Luana Lopes Lara is a cofounder of Kalshi, which has introduced a new way for anyone to make predictions about real events.

In three years since founding, Luana had become a billionaire in December 2025 when Kalshi expanded rapidly to be valued at around $11 billion after a $1 billion Series C funding round. Luana owns an estimated 12 percent stake in Kalshi, according to the December 2025 estimation, giving her a net worth of approximately $1.3 billion.

She has an extensive background in classical ballet, having trained for years at the Bolshoi Ballet School in Brazil. The demanding schedule of academic classes alongside vigorous dance training instilled a resilience and discipline which later set the tone for her work as an entrepreneur.

The idea for Kalshi came about in 2018 while Lara and fellow MIT graduate Tarek Mansour were interning in New York City. The Kalshi platform lets users trade on the outcomes of real-world events within a regulated framework-a new kind of financial instrument.

Prediction markets are a tightly regulated space in the U.S., and many such sites operate in murky legal waters. Kalshi did things a little differently-securing proper licensing with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, to operate as a Designated Contract Market.

In 2023, the CFTC prohibited Kalshi from providing contracts associated with elections. However, Luana and Mansour successfully pursued Kalshi's case through litigation.

On September 3, 2024, the U.S. reached a major milestone by allowing regulated trading of contracts related to elections for the first time in over 100 years after a federal judge ruled in favor of Kalshi. All of this regulatory success has greatly enhanced Kalshi's reputation and has instilled trust in investors.

Luana has experienced turbulence but her rise from training in ballet to being the head of a multibillion-dollar corporation demonstrates her determination and flexibility. Lara represents an entrepreneurial type that combines complex regulatory systems and creativity to produce exceptional new products.

While Kalshi has reached great strides, there are still numerous ethical and regulatory issues surrounding prediction markets. As of 2025, Luana's work demonstrates both the vast potential and enormous continuing difficulties associated with this industry.