- Famed growth investor’s firm participated in Kalshi’s latest funding round
- The ARK Venture Fund now holds a stake in the prediction markets operator
- Kalshi isn’t the fund’s only prediction markets-related holding
Cathie Wood’s ARK Investment Management announced it is an investor in prediction markets giant Kalshi.
Her firm said its ARK Venture Fund participated in Kalshi’s Series E financing round, which wrapped up last month. That capital raise injected $1 billion into the event contracts exchange, pushing its valuation to $11 billion from $5 billion a month prior. In an email to investors, ARK said it was “happy” to invest in the company co-founded by Luana Lopes Lara and Tarek Mansour.
Kalshi is a federally regulated financial exchange that allows users to trade on the outcomes of future events—known as ‘event contracts,’” according to ARK. “Through Kalshi, participants can take positions on topics such as inflation, elections, or economic data, using a transparent and compliant framework similar to traditional futures exchanges.”
It’s believed Sequoia Capital and CapitalG led the latest capital raise for Kalshi with participation from previous investors Andreessen Horowitz, Paradigm, Anthos Capital, and Neo. The ARK Venture Fund has positions in both publicly traded and privately held companies with Kalshi being one of the fund’s 47 investments in closely held entities.
Kalshi Isn’t ARK’s Only Prediction Markets Position
Wood’s ARK Investment Management, a longtime DraftKings shareholder, isn’t heavily allocated to wagering-related names in the Venture Fund. Among the fund’s stakes in private companies, Kalshi, though it positions itself as a technology company, is the only one with betting ties.
However, Kalshi isn’t the Venture Fund’s only source of exposure to prediction markets. Robinhood Markets (NASDAQ: HOOD), a Kalshi partner, is one 18 stakes the fund has in public companies. Last week, Robinhood announced a partnership with Susquehanna International Group that amounts to its own entry into prediction markets.
Robinhood said it will continue partnering with Kalshi and that it plans to work with multiple exchanges as it builds out its prediction markets platform, indicating the relationship could continue over the long-term.
The ARK Venture Fund also has a stake in Coinbase Global (NASDAQ: COIN), the largest cryptocurrency exchange operator. That company is viewed as likely to enter the prediction markets space.
ARK Venture Fund Is Home to Some Well-Known Companies
In addition to its stake in Kalshi, the ARK Venture Fund has investments in a slew of other well-known private companies. Those include all three of Elon Musk’s private firms – Groq, SpaceX, and xAI. The fund also has a position in ChatGPT parent OpenAI. OpenAI and SpaceX are the two most valuable closely held companies in the world.
Anthropic, another large artificial intelligence unicorn, is another holding in the ARK fund. Add in the fund’s stakes in Databricks and Revolut and it holds positions in five of the 10 largest unicorns.
As for Kalshi, at its $11 billion valuation, it’s among the 50 most valuable unicorns — closely held companies worth at least $1 billion — in the world.
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