10 Photos of Luana Lopes Lara: Kalshi Co-Founder Who Just Passed Taylor Swift as the Youngest Self-Made Female Billionaire

From ballet barre to billionaire boardroom, Luana Lopes Lara has stunned the world. At just 29, the Brazilian-born co-founder of fintech sensation Kalshi has rocketed past Taylor Swift and Lucy Guo to become the youngest self-made woman billionaire on the planet.

Her meteoric rise follows Kalshi's explosive valuation of £8.7 billion ($11 billion) after a fresh £790 million ($1 billion) fundraising round, catapulting Lara squarely into the three-comma club and igniting global fascination with the disciplined prodigy behind one of Silicon Valley's biggest recent success stories.

Who Is Luana Lopes Lara?

Long before Lara became one of the youngest power players in Silicon Valley, she led a life defined by relentless discipline. According to Economic Times, she was raised in Brazil, trained as a ballerina at the prestigious Bolshoi Theater School, where conditions were so punishing she later described the experience as the most difficult period of her life.

Teachers reportedly held lit cigarettes beneath her thigh to test her physical endurance, while rival dancers allegedly concealed shards of glass inside their shoes to gain a competitive edge. Her gruelling schedule left little room for rest, with academic classes running from morning until noon and ballet training stretching deep into the evening.

Despite the intense pressure, Lara excelled academically. Encouraged by her mother, a mathematics teacher, and her father, an electrical engineer, she took part in advanced competitions, earning medals in astronomy and mathematics.

Following a short stint performing professionally in Austria, Lara made the bold decision to abandon ballet altogether and redirect her formidable discipline towards the world of technology.

Friends describe her as intensely focused and deeply analytical. Observers often point to her remarkable journey from elite dancer to top-tier technologist as evidence of a rare mental fortitude that now underpins her business success.

With Kalshi poised for expansion as regulators continue to loosen restrictions around event markets, Lara is increasingly viewed as one of the defining innovators of the next decade.

A Groundbreaking Fintech Platform

Lara went on to study computer science and mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before completing a master's degree in engineering, where her research focused on cognitive science.

She founded Kalshi alongside fellow MIT graduate Tarek Mansour, also 29, inspired by a simple yet disruptive idea: to allow traders to speculate on real-world outcomes in the same way they trade stocks.

Kalshi became the first federally regulated exchange in the United States to offer contracts based on binary questions, enabling users to buy and sell positions tied to elections, weather patterns, cultural events, and sporting results.

Revenue is generated through modest transaction fees. Crucially, unlike traditional gambling platforms, Kalshi does not profit when customers lose money, a distinction that has helped the company attract regulatory approval and institutional backing.

The platform's rise has been nothing short of extraordinary. Kalshi was valued at around £1.6 billion ($2 billion) earlier this year before climbing to £3.9 billion ($5 billion) following a subsequent funding round. Its valuation now stands at £8.7 billion ($11 billion) after the latest investment led by crypto-focused venture firm Paradigm, with backing from several high-profile Silicon Valley financiers.

How She Became the Youngest Self-Made Woman Billionaire

As Kalshi's valuation has surged at a pace rarely seen within fintech, both Lara and Mansour are now estimated to hold approximately 12 per cent stakes in the company.

Forbes reports this places Lara's personal wealth at roughly £1.03 billion ($1.3 billion) – enough to officially crown her the youngest self-made woman billionaire in history.

She overtakes Lucy Guo, who earlier held the title after surpassing pop megastar Taylor Swift earlier this year. Swift remains the richest female musician globally, yet Lara's rise is considered particularly significant because her fortune was created entirely within the realms of technology and financial markets, not entertainment or inherited wealth.

At just 29 years of age, Lara has achieved what most entrepreneurs fail to reach across an entire lifetime, cementing her place among fintech's most remarkable breakout figures.