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Jay Malavia and Zayd Alzein are both interested in prediction markets during the 2024 presidential election. But they quickly noticed that the emerging industry—which invites users to bet on the probability of various events—is fragmented, with different lists scattered across more and more exchanges. This is the reason they found with Kairos, a special trading terminal for dedicated users of the prediction market.
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 the valuation of his company in an interview with Good luck.
“There aren’t many times in history where you get an opportunity to shape an emerging industry,” said Malavia, the company’s CEO. “That’s what we’re building, and it’s fueling us.”
The co-founders hope to attract users to a platform that combines the offerings of the two largest prediction markets, Kalshi and Polymarket, while providing fast, customizable dashboards. When using Kairos, customers can see the latest trades from the exchanges in one place and can also see the latest news alerts about bets. The company says 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 many other exchanges soon.
Malavia and Alzein, the CTO, are both in their early 20s and grew up as family friends near Chicago. They become familiar with sophisticated trading terminals while they are partners in Cboe Global Marketsa traditional financial company, which serves as a derivatives and exchange network. The two friends thought they would bring advanced trading technology to the growing industry of the prediction market.
Kairos plans to have a private beta launch in the coming weeks. The two co-founders are currently the only employees, but they plan to hire after the raise.
They expect that Kairos will initially be most popular among sophisticated and professional traders in the prediction market. But in the future it aims to become popular among regular traders. Malavia and Alzein say they see demand for their product from two groups: people working in traditional finance who use prediction markets for fun, and also people working in crypto.
The company’s name is based on the Greek word kairos, which means exact or critical time.
“This is the right time to form an industry and give power back to the people,” Malavia said. “In trading, it’s all about timing.”
