In an extraordinary career leap, 29-year-old Luana Lopes Lara has just been crowned the youngest self-made female billionaire in the world with a net worth of approximately $1.3 billion, according to Forbes (December 2025).
The Brazilian-born entrepreneur co-founded Kalshi — the first federally regulated prediction market exchange in the United States — which has now reached a staggering valuation of $11 billion.
From Bolshoi Ballet to Billion-Dollar Fintech Empire
Luana trained for a decade at the prestigious Bolshoi Theater School in Joinville, Brazil, practicing up to 10 hours a day. Despite her success in ballet, she chose academics and enrolled at MIT, where she met her future business partner Tarek Mansour (also 29).
In 2018, fresh out of college, the duo launched Kalshi — a platform that allows users to trade on real-world event outcomes: elections, sports, entertainment awards, economic data, and more.
How Luana Became a Billionaire at 29
Luana owns roughly 12% of Kalshi. With the company’s latest valuation hitting $11 billion, her stake is now worth $1.3 billion — making her richer than previous title holders such as Lucy Guo (Scale AI) and even Taylor Swift.
“We took an insane amount of risk. For two years we had no product — if we didn’t get regulated, the company would have gone to zero. But we wanted to build the biggest financial exchange in the world, and we were going to do it the right way.”
— Luana Lopes Lara (Forbes interview)
Previous Youngest Self-Made Female Billionaires
- Lucy Guo (31) – Co-founder of Scale AI → $1.3B (lost crown Dec 2025)
- Taylor Swift (35) – Music & branding → $1.6B
- Kylie Jenner (27) – Kylie Cosmetics (Forbes revoked “self-made” label)
Luana Lopes Lara is the first woman under 30 to reach billionaire status entirely through founding a tech company with zero family wealth.
