Luana Lopes Lara

At just 30, Luana Lopes Lara is the world’s youngest self-made woman billionaire. As reported by Forbes, she has an estimated fortune of $2.6 billion. The Brazilian entrepreneur is the co-founder of Kalshi, a prediction-market platform valued at $22 billion. It’s an impressive achievement for someone who spent much of her early life dreaming of something completely different: becoming a professional ballerina.

Raised in Niterói, Brazil, Lara began dancing at the age of two. She trained at Rio de Janeiro’s municipal theater school and later at the prestigious Bolshoi school in Joinville. Her days were filled with academic classes, rehearsals, and English lessons to help her prepare for university abroad. She danced professionally in Austria for six months before deciding to pursue a different career path.

That decision brought her to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she met Tarek Mansour, a fellow international student from Lebanon. The two studied together and eventually entered the financial industry, where they noticed an opportunity. People could invest in companies affected by elections or economic decisions, but what if they could trade directly on the outcomes of those events?

© Anna Webber

In 2018, they founded Kalshi, a platform that lets users trade on whether certain events will happen, from election results to economic developments and sporting events. Getting the business approved was far from simple. After years of regulatory challenges, Lara and Mansour took the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission to court and won a major victory in 2024, allowing Kalshi to offer contracts tied to congressional elections.

In 2026, Kalshi’s valuation reached $22 billion, making Lara one of finance’s most successful young entrepreneurs. As the company's chief operating officer, Lara is deeply involved in running the business, from overseeing engineering and new markets to helping build the team that's behind its rapid growth. And she’s particularly excited about what Kalshi could mean for Brazil. 

In March 2026, the company announced a partnership with XP International to offer prediction markets to eligible Brazilian investors. For Lara, bringing her business to the country she grew up in carries a special meaning. The expansion has encountered regulatory obstacles, as have some of Kalshi’s sports-related contracts in the United States, but she remains committed to the company’s future.

© Anna Webber

Lara often credits her Brazilian upbringing for her optimism and her belief that things will eventually work out, even when the odds are against her. That mindset has stayed with her through years of regulatory battles and the challenges of building a business in an industry that few people understood when she started.

Becoming a billionaire at 30 would be enough to make headlines, but Lara’s story is more than her fortune. She took an idea that once seemed unlikely and turned it into a multibillion-dollar business. 

Today, she’s among a new generation of Latina entrepreneurs gaining influence in industries where women have historically had little representation. With Kalshi growing, we can’t wait to see what she builds next.