One former Kalshi executive and one former employee of Kalshi's affiliated market maker have launched a new venture capital fund called 5c(c) Capital, targeting a raise of up to $35 million to invest in prediction market infrastructure companies.

The fund's backers include an unlikely pair: Tarek Mansour, CEO of Kalshi, and Shayne Coplan, CEO of Polymarket. The two men lead the dominant platforms in a sector that processed a combined more than $37 billion in event contracts in 2025, yet they have maintained one of crypto's more theatrical public rivalries.

The fund was announced March 23, 2026, with a first close expected within the coming month.

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The fund is led by Adhi Rajaprabhakaran, who served as the second trader at Kalshi's affiliated market maker, and Noah Zingler-Sternig, Kalshi's former Head of Operations. Their pitch document describes prediction markets as a "generational investment opportunity." The plan is to back roughly 20 companies over two years, concentrating on market makers, index designers, and adjacent infrastructure. Additional investors include Marc Andreessen (via Moneta Luna), Ribbit Capital founder Micky Malka, and Kyle Samani, formerly a managing partner at Multicoin Capital.

Samani explained the rationale plainly: "Adhi knows that the next few years are critical to build out infra around prediction markets."

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The fund's name is a direct reference to Section 5c(c) of the Commodity Exchange Act, specifically the 5c(c)(5)(C) subsection, which gives the Commodity Futures Trading Commission authority to block event contracts it deems contrary to the public interest.

The categories covered by that subsection include war, terrorism, assassination, and gaming.

The choice of name suggests that regulatory positioning, not just product innovation, will define which prediction market companies succeed.

That framing is relevant now: on March 12, just 11 days before this announcement, the CFTC published an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking public comment on how event contracts should be regulated. The comment period closes April 30, 2026.

Separately, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes filed 20 misdemeanor criminal charges against Kalshi in March 2026. The CFTC has pushed back against state-level gambling prosecution efforts by both Nevada and Arizona, asserting federal jurisdiction over the sector.

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The combined Mansour and Coplan investment is striking given their documented antagonism. Both CEOs have filed competing trademark applications for "world's largest prediction market." Their platforms have traded competing media partnerships, retail promotions, and trade group affiliations. In late 2025, Kalshi staff promoted mocking memes following an FBI raid on Coplan's home, an episode reported by NPR in March 2026 that illustrates the depth of the rivalry.

NPR's March 2026 headline described them as "2 young billionaires… [who] hate each other."

Mansour himself acknowledged the dynamic: "We were like the most ferocious on the field, and we fought each other."

Their joint participation in 5c(c) Capital suggests that whatever personal friction exists, both see enough value in building out shared infrastructure to appear on the same investor list.

Kalshi's current valuation stands at $22 billion following a Coatue Management-led raise of over $1 billion in March 2026. Polymarket reached an $8 billion pre-money valuation in October 2025 after a deal in which the Intercontinental Exchange, parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, committed up to $2 billion.

Together, the two platforms account for roughly 97.5% of total prediction market trading volume in 2025.

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For users and developers outside the United States, the fund's formation carries practical significance beyond the headline number. Polymarket is the dominant platform for users outside the United States and already serves a largely non-American user base, in part because US residents face access restrictions.

Any new market-making tools or liquidity infrastructure backed by 5c(c) Capital would likely be built on protocols that are borderless by design.

India currently ranks first in the 2026 Global Crypto Adoption Index and Nigeria ranks second, according to the Crypto News Navigator index. Both countries have active developer communities contributing to DeFi and prediction market tooling, as do Kenya and Pakistan.

In Africa, Luno launched prediction markets in Nigeria and South Africa on March 19, 2026, just days before the fund announcement, partnering with US-based infrastructure provider Limitless.

Luno Nigeria Country Manager and CEO Ayotunde Alabi noted that "Prediction Markets are a natural evolution of how our customers already engage with cryptocurrency, and there is a strong customer demand for this product."

The product allows positions between 3 USDC and 10,000 USDC on 24-hour price windows for assets including BTC, ETH, SOL, DOGE, and XRP. The service is available to KYC-verified users only, a material restriction in markets where identity document access and compliance infrastructure vary.

The regulatory classification of prediction markets as gambling versus financial instruments remains unresolved across most African jurisdictions. The Lagos State Lotteries and Gaming Authority previously listed Bayse Markets, formerly known as Gowagr, as an illegal operator, illustrating the unsettled legal landscape that new entrants in the region must navigate.

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The regulatory question looming over this fund is whether the CFTC's rulemaking process will eventually produce a framework that other jurisdictions can model.

For users in Lagos, Nairobi, or Mumbai, the practical barriers to prediction market participation are less about technology and more about regulatory clarity and banking access.

A formalized US framework, backed by the institutional weight of a CFTC rulemaking and amplified by venture capital attention, may give regulators in emerging markets a reference point.

Combined monthly trading volume across Kalshi and Polymarket reached approximately $16.8 billion in February 2026, putting the sector on pace for more than $200 billion annually, according to TradeTheOutcome data pending independent verification.

Whether 5c(c) Capital's 20-company bet on the infrastructure layer proves well-timed depends, in large part, on what emerges from the CFTC's rulemaking process, which closes its initial public comment period at the end of April.