Jay Malavia and Zayd Alzein both got interested in prediction markets around the time of the 2024 presidential election. But they quickly noticed that the emerging industry—which invites users to wager on the likelihood of various events—was fragmented, with various listings scattered across a growing number of exchanges. This is what led them to co-found Kairos, a specialized trading terminal for dedicated prediction market users.
The startup announced that it raised $2.5 million in a funding round led by a16z crypto, with participation from Geneva Trading, the University of Illinois, and other angel investors. Malavia did not disclose his company’s valuation in an interview with Fortune.
“There are not many times in history where you get an opportunity to shape an emerging industry,” said Malavia, CEO of the company. “That’s what we’re building, and it really energizes us.”
The co-founders hope to attract users with a platform that integrates the offerings of the two largest prediction markets, Kalshi and Polymarket, while providing fast, customizable dashboards. When using Kairos, customers can see the most updated trades from those exchanges in one place and can also see up-to-date news alerts pertaining to those wagers. The company says that its platform is two to three seconds faster than the Kalshi or Polymarket interfaces. It has integrated Kalshi and Polymarket into its terminal and aims to integrate several other exchanges soon.
Malavia and Alzein, the CTO, are both in their early 20s and grew up as family friends near Chicago. They became familiar with sophisticated trading terminals while they were colleagues at Cboe Global Markets, a traditional finance company, which serves as a derivatives and exchange network. The two friends thought they would bring advanced trading technology to the growing prediction market industry.
Kairos plans to have a private beta launch in the coming weeks. The two co-founders are currently the only employees, but they are planning to hire following the raise.
They expect that Kairos will at first be most popular with sophisticated and professional prediction market traders. But in the future it aims to be just as popular with regular traders. Malavia and Alzein say that they have seen demand for their product from two groups: people who work in traditional finance who use prediction markets recreationally, and also people who work in crypto.
The company name is based on the greek word kairos, which means the exact or critical time.
“This is the opportune time to reshape an industry and give the power back to the people,” Malavia said. “In trading, it is all about the right time.”
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
