Brazilian Entrepreneur and Former Ballerina Becomes the World’s Youngest Self-Made Female Billionaire at 29

• 

  Newsroom

• December 05, 2025

• Newsroom

Brazilian Entrepreneur and Former Ballerina Becomes the World’s Youngest Self-Made Female Billionaire at 29

A 29-year-old former ballerina has achieved an extraordinary milestone, surpassing Kylie Jenner and Taylor Swift to become the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire. Luana Lopes Lara, born in Brazil, was officially recognized by Forbes as the youngest woman globally to independently accumulate a billion-dollar fortune—overtaking Scale AI co-founder Lucy Guo, who held the title earlier this year.

Lara’s rise in global rankings is directly tied to the explosive valuation of Kalshi, the company she co-founded, which has recently been valued at $11 billion. Her estimated 12% ownership stake places her personal net worth at approximately $1.3 billion.

A Market Built on Forecasting the Future

Kalshi operates as a regulated prediction and event-trading exchange, enabling users to take positions on real-world outcomes—ranging from elections and sports results to cultural moments and economic indicators. The company describes itself as a platform where individuals can express their expectations about the future through structured markets.

But reaching this point required navigating extraordinary uncertainty. Lara shared with Forbes that she and her co-founder faced immense pressure in the early days:

“Right out of college, we were taking on an insane amount of risk. We spent two years building with no product launched, and if regulation didn’t come through, the company would go to zero,” she said.

The Concept That Started on Late-Night Walks

The idea for Kalshi formed in 2018 during late-night conversations in New York’s Financial District, where Lara and her future co-founder Tarek Mansour were interning at major financial firms. Yet their youth quickly became a barrier: more than 40 law firms declined to represent them until former CFTC official Jeff Bandman stepped in to advise.

Kalshi secured its federal approval in 2020—just as blockchain rival Polymarket faced a $1.4 million penalty for running unregistered markets.

A Legal Battle That Defined the Company’s Future

In 2023, Kalshi confronted its most pivotal challenge when the CFTC blocked its political event markets. Investors urged Lara to abandon the fight, but she refused. Her persistence paid off:

• In September 2024, a federal judge ruled in Kalshi’s favor.

• More than $500 million was subsequently traded on the 2024 presidential election.

• Users correctly projected a Trump victory.

Andreessen Horowitz partner Alex Immerman later remarked that Lara’s resilience was shaped long before her entry into tech:

“Few training grounds prepare you to be told ‘no’ and push forward like a career in professional ballet.”

Hypergrowth in the Aftermath

Following the court decision, Kalshi entered a period of hyper-expansion:

• Weekly trading volume surged more than 1,000%, now exceeding $1 billion.

• The platform established integrations with Robinhood, Webull, StockX, Google Finance, and even the NHL.

• Donald Trump Jr. joined Kalshi’s advisory board in early 2025.

• The company expanded into crypto by launching prediction markets on Solana.

Despite tension with some state regulators over sports markets, investors have intensified their confidence. Y Combinator CEO Michael Seibel commented:

“I’m not sure we’ve funded another company with this level of potential impact.”

From Ballet Studios to MIT: The Making of a Billionaire

Lara’s path to entrepreneurship was unconventional and extraordinarily demanding. She trained at the elite Bolshoi Theatre School in Joinville, where discipline was notoriously strict. She later described her secondary-school years as “the most intense” of her life.

Despite the grueling schedule, Lara excelled academically—earning:

• Gold at the Brazilian Astronomy Olympiad

• Bronze at the Santa Catarina Mathematics Olympiad

She performed professionally in Austria for nearly a year before shifting her focus toward technology. At 17, she moved alone to the United States to study computer science at MIT.

In 2017, she co-founded Kalshi with her MIT classmate Tarek Mansour, who also became a millionaire before turning 30.