Polymarket Targets $15 Billion Valuation in New Funding Round

The round would give the company a valuation of around $15 billion, including the new funds, The Information reported Sunday (April 19), citing sources familiar with the matter.

According to the report, this financing would add to the $600 million already invested in the company by New York Stock Exchange parent Intercontinental Exchange.

The report notes that a $15 billion valuation would still be below the $22 billion reached last month by rival prediction market Kalshi. However, the new valuation would still be more than 66% higher than the $9 billion the company achieved in a funding round last year.

The report also postulates a reason for the difference in valuations: Polymarket has only recently begun serving U.S. customers and charging fees to drive revenue, while Kalshi had a head start in the U.S., with annualized revenues of $1.5 billion.

Polymarket, unlike Kalshi, settles trades on a blockchain and has discussed issuing its own token, the report added. The company is also planning an initial public offering, sources familiar with its thinking told The Information.

The funding plans come in the wake of a surge in popularity of prediction markets, which let users purchase event contracts — derivatives that pay out to investors who correctly predict the outcome of things like sporting events or elections.

A recent report by Wall Street broker Bernstein forecasts that prediction market volumes will reach $1 trillion by 2030. This will happen as the industry shifts from niche bets to a larger “information market” covering sports, cryptocurrency, politics and the economy, the report said.

Volumes came to $51 billion last year and are on pace to reach around $240 billion this year, which implies roughly 80% compound annual growth through the rest of the decade, the report added. Activity has already accelerated so far this year, with Polymarket and Kalshi seeing combined year-to-date volumes of $60 billion.

“Increasing regulatory clarity at the federal level is expanding the addressable market, while blockchain-based tokenization and integration with crypto markets is enabling global liquidity, long-tail event creation and participation from institutions,” the analysis said.

Still, prediction markets have become a flashpoint between federal and state regulators, as PYMNTS wrote last year.

“While real-money prediction markets technically fall under the jurisdiction of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), a growing number of states have sought to shut down the markets they view as unlicensed or illegal gambling operations,” that report said.