Reaching the Top at 29: The Late-Night Entrepreneurial Inspiration of the Youngest Female Billionaire

[BlockBeats] 29 years old. At this age, Lopes Lara has already reached a position that most people can’t even dream of in their lifetime—she’s the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire. She just took over this title from 31-year-old Scale AI co-founder Lucy Guo, who herself only received it from Taylor Swift this past April.

The story begins in Lebanon. Lopes Lara and her partner Mansour both grew up there and later met at MIT. They mixed in the same international student circles and had similar class schedules—both majored in computer science. In the summer of 2018, they interned together at Five Rings Capital in New York, and their bond grew even stronger.

The turning point came quite suddenly. One night, the two of them were walking back from their internship apartment in the Financial District and started talking. Out of that conversation came an idea: to create a prediction market platform. And just like that, Kalshi was born.

Looking back now, that late-night spark was worth it. According to the latest news, Kalshi just completed a $1 billion funding round, pushing its valuation to $11 billion. The lead investor was Paradigm, and the list of co-investors is equally impressive: Sequoia Capital, a16z, and Y Combinator are all on board.

From MIT student circles to a company valued in the billions, from Financial District interns to billionaires, the two of them made this journey in less than seven years. The prediction market track, in hindsight, was the right bet.