Polymarket and Kalshi CEOs Back the Same 35 Million Dollar Prediction Market Fund

Shayne Coplan and Tarek Mansour have spent years trying to destroy each other's businesses. Coplan runs Polymarket, the blockchain-based prediction market that exploded during the 2024 US election cycle. Mansour co-founded Kalshi, the CFTC-regulated exchange that has fought multiple federal lawsuits to offer event contracts to US residents. The two platforms compete for the same traders, the same liquidity, and the same regulatory real estate.

Now both CEOs are writing checks into the same venture fund.

5c(c) Capital: Named After the Law That Made Prediction Markets Legal

The fund is called 5c(c) Capital, a reference to Section 5c(c) of the Commodity Exchange Act, the clause that governs how prediction market contracts can be listed and traded. It is raising up to $35 million and plans to back approximately 20 early-stage startups over two years, Fortune reported on March 23.

The fund's two general partners are Adhi Rajaprabhakaran, the second trader hired at Kalshi's affiliated market maker, and Noah Zingler-Sternig, Kalshi's former head of operations. Both spent years building the prediction market infrastructure from the inside before deciding the category had grown large enough to warrant its own dedicated venture firm.

Their investor list reads like a who's who of crypto venture capital: Marc Andreessen (via his Moneta Luna fund), Micky Malka (Ribbit Capital founder), Kyle Samani (former Multicoin Capital managing partner), and a Millennium Management portfolio manager. More than 20 investors have committed ahead of the first close, which is expected within the next month.

The Rivalry That Makes This Unusual

Polymarket and Kalshi are not friendly competitors. Kalshi has been embroiled in roughly 20 federal lawsuits and state-level regulatory challenges as it fights to expand its contract offerings. Polymarket, operating on the Polygon blockchain and technically restricting US users, has taken a different regulatory path entirely. The two platforms have publicly clashed over market structure, user access, and which model will win long-term.

For both CEOs to back the same fund signals something specific: neither believes prediction markets are a winner-take-all category. If they did, funding potential competitors or adjacent infrastructure would be irrational. Instead, both appear to be betting that the total addressable market is large enough that growing the ecosystem benefits everyone, including their own platforms.

"Adhi knows that the next few years are critical to build out infra around prediction markets," Samani said, according to Fortune.

Where the Money Will Go

5c(c) Capital is not looking to fund more prediction market exchanges. The fund's thesis targets the infrastructure layer: data tools, liquidity provision services, compliance systems, and prediction market index products. Think of it as the picks-and-shovels play for a category that is rapidly attracting mainstream financial players.

That mainstream push is already well underway. Coinbase, Kraken, and Robinhood have all entered the prediction market space in recent months. Kalshi raised $1 billion at a reported $22 billion valuation. Polymarket's valuation sits around $20 billion. The combined market for event contracts has gone from a niche crypto experiment to a category that traditional finance firms are building dedicated desks around.

The fund's focus on infrastructure rather than exchanges also sidesteps a regulatory minefield. Building data tooling and compliance software for prediction markets is far less likely to draw CFTC scrutiny than launching a new exchange.

What This Means for the Prediction Market Stack

Prediction markets are following a pattern familiar to anyone who watched DeFi mature between 2020 and 2023. First, the core exchanges launch and fight for users. Then, once the category proves durable, capital flows into the middleware: oracles, aggregators, analytics platforms, and compliance layers.

5c(c) Capital is placing itself at that inflection point. If prediction markets continue growing at their current pace, the 20 startups this fund backs will form the connective tissue between exchanges, data providers, and the institutional traders now entering the space.

The crypto market as of March 24, 2026, shows BTC at $70,782 (+4.1% in 24 hours), ETH at $2,147 (+4.4%), and SOL at $91.45 (+5.8%), with the Fear & Greed Index sitting at 33 (Fear). The broader risk-off environment has not slowed the prediction market sector's fundraising momentum.

Overview

Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan and Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour, two of crypto's most prominent rivals, are both investing in 5c(c) Capital, a new $35 million venture fund dedicated to prediction market infrastructure. The fund is led by two former Kalshi employees and backed by Marc Andreessen, Micky Malka, Kyle Samani, and more than 20 other investors. It plans to fund approximately 20 startups over two years, focusing on data tools, liquidity services, and compliance systems rather than new exchanges. The first close is expected within a month.