Luana Lopes Lara
Luana Lopes Lara | |
|---|---|
| Alma mater | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Known for | Co-founder of Kalshi Youngest self-made woman billionaire of all-time |
Luana Lopes Lara (born 1996) is a Brazilian entrepreneur, who currently serves as the chief operating officer (COO) of the online prediction market site Kalshi, which she co-founded with Tarek Mansour. She had a net worth of about $1.3 billion at age 29 in 2025, making her the youngest woman billionaire.[1]
Early life and education
Lara was born in Belo Horizonte, Brazil in 1996. For eight years she attended a Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Joinville, before being engaged in a production of Swan Lake at the Salzburger Landestheater in Austria for a few months.[1][2][3]
At age 18, she decided to study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from where she graduated with a degree in degree in computer science in 2018.[1][4][2]
While a student at MIT, Lara interned at Bridgewater Associates and Citadel Securities.[5]
Career
In 2018, Lara founded Kalshi with Tarek Mansour, whom she met while the two were students at MIT.[6][7] Following multiple rounds of venture capital funding led by Paradigm totaling more than $1 billion in volume in late 2025, Kalshi was valued at $11 billion.[1][2]
In December 2025, Forbes reported that, Lara became the world's youngest self-made woman billionaire at age 29, displacing previous titleholder Scale AI-cofounder Lucy Guo.[1] Her networth, estimated to be about $1.3 billion largely derives from her 12% stake in Kalshi.[1]
In 2024, Kalshi received federal approval to offer contracts on U.S. presidential elections. It was the first time in more than a century that such trading had been legally permitted in the United States.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g Park, Alicia (December 4, 2025). "Kalshi's cofounder is now world's youngest self-made woman billionaire". Forbes. Archived from the original on February 17, 2026. Retrieved March 3, 2025.
- ^ a b c Fröhlich, Christoph (2026-01-06). "Luana Lopes Lara: 11 Fakten über die Selfmade-Milliardärin". DAS INVESTMENT (in German). Retrieved 2026-03-21.
- ^ Oetjen, Lea M. (2026-01-07). "Ex-Ballerina gründet Online-Wettbörse – und wird jüngste Selfmade-Milliardärin der Welt". Business Insider (in German). Retrieved 2026-03-21.
- ^ "Luana Lopes Lara". CNBC. 2026-02-25. Retrieved 2026-02-26.
- ^ Royle, Orianna Rose (December 4, 2025). "Meet Luana Lopes Lara: The 29-year-old ballerina spent summers working for Ray Dalio—now she's the youngest female self-made billionaire".
- ^ "These MIT Grads Were Interns at Goldman and Citadel. Now They Want to Democratize Hedging. | Institutional Investor". www.institutionalinvestor.com. Retrieved 2026-02-26.
- ^ Roeder, Oliver (2026-02-11). "This 29-year-old is worth $15b and wants you to bet on everything". Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 2026-02-26.