Trump Jr.’s Venture Fund to Invest $300 Million in Polymarket’s Latest Funding Round

In Brief

• According to Bloomberg, which first reported the investment, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter, Polymarket is set to raise $1 billion in the funding round, with 1789 Capital contributing around $300 million.
• 1789 Capital—where President Donald Trump’s eldest son serves as a partner—previously made a “strategic investment” in Polymarket last year.
• At the time, the company did not disclose the investment’s terms but announced that Trump Jr. had joined its advisory board.
• In March, Intercontinental Exchange, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, invested an additional $600 million in Polymarket, bringing its total investment in the company to $1.6 billion.
• Polymarket’s main rival, Kalshi, raised $1 billion in April at a similar $22 billion valuation, in a funding round that included Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Morgan Stanley and others.

What Do We Know About 1789’s Earlier Investment in Polymarket? 

Citing people familiar with the investments, the Wall Street Journal reported that 1789 Capital’s latest cash infusion makes it one of Polymarket’s largest investors, following an earlier $200 million investment in the platform. In a press release announcing last year’s investment, Polymarket said Trump Jr. would bring “decades of experience” to its advisory board as the company works to expand global adoption of its platform. At the time, Trump Jr. described Polymarket as the “largest prediction market in the world” and argued that the U.S. “needs access to this important platform.” The president’s son said prediction market numbers help people cut through “media spin and so-called 'expert' opinion” by allowing them to bet on what they genuinely believe will happen in the world.

Tangent

In January last year, several months before 1789 Capital’s investment in Polymarket, Kalshi announced that Trump Jr. had joined the company as a Strategic Advisor. The announcement criticized what it described as a “fractured, often biased media landscape” and said Trump Jr. would bring a new perspective to the company. Kalshi also emphasized that, unlike the mainstream media, it had “failed to anticipate President-Elect Trump’s decisive victory” in the 2024 presidential election. Trump Jr. reinforced the point in an X post, writing: “On Election night at Mar-a-Lago, while biased outlets called the race a coin toss, my family and close friends used the prediction market Kalshi to know we won hours ahead of the fake news media.” According to the Financial Times, Trump Jr. received a $300,000 stake in Kalshi when he joined as an advisor in January 2025. The value of that stake has likely increased manyfold as Kalshi has secured funding at significantly higher valuations since then.

What To Watch For

Earlier this month, The Information reported that Kalshi has surpassed $4 billion in annualized revenue and is preparing for another fundraising round at a $40 billion valuation. Kalshi’s target is nearly twice Polymarket’s latest reported valuation, highlighting a significant shift in fortunes for the two companies over the past year. In October last year, following Intercontinental Exchange’s $1 billion investment in Polymarket, the crypto-based platform was valued at $9 billion, while Kalshi was valued at $5 billion.