Polymarket raises $45 million from Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, Vitalik Buterin and others

Polymarket has raised a $45 million Series B funding round led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and existing investors 1confirmation and ParaFi, with participation from Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, Dragonfly and Eventbrite’s co-founder Kevin Hartz.

Polymarket is a decentralized prediction market platform that utilizes the Ethereum blockchain and smart contracts to allow users to speculate on the outcomes of various real-world events using stablecoins in a transparent and trustless way.

“Polymarket has finally made the vision for prediction markets a reality — an opportunity that we have been passionate about for years,” Founders Fund Partner Joey Krug said in a statement. “Internally at Founders Fund we developed a habit of checking Polymarket at times of breaking news. The tangible benefits of using Polymarket as a complement to consuming news on social and mainstream media was obvious. It became clear to us that Polymarket was the winner in this market.” 

The firm behind the predictions market platform also confirmed a previously unannounced $25 million Series A round led by General Catalyst, with participation from Airbnb’s Joe Gebbia and Polychain, among others.

The new investment comes despite a Commodity Futures Trading Commission proposal on Friday to crack down on so-called event contracts that enable derivatives betting on political contests and sports. Polymarket previously settled with the CFTC for $1.4 million in 2022, agreeing to wind down its Polymarket.com front-end website services in the U.S.

Polymarket claims some $202 million worth of predictions have been made via the platform so far in 2024. More than $125 million has been bet on the outcome of the U.S. election alone, according to its website. Donald Trump currently leads Joe Biden with 49% versus 44% odds on the platform.

Exploring the prospect of US-regulated activities

Polymarket also announced on Tuesday that it hired veteran futures industry executive Richard Jaycobs as its Head of Market Expansion. Jaycobs will be responsible for exploring the prospect of U.S.-regulated activities.

“I’m excited to work with Polymarket as it enters its next phase of growth,” Jaycobs said. “I’ve been involved in the registration and operation of over a dozen innovative financial derivatives exchanges and clearinghouses over the course of my 30-year career. Regulated markets serve an important economic role for commercial interests and offer exceptional transparency for public policy makers. Polymarket’s unprecedented global volume demonstrates that their markets are particularly relevant for the general public.”

Jaycobs will work closely with former CFTC Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo, a.k.a “CryptoDad,” who currently serves as Polymarket’s advisory board Chair and also took a position on stablecoin issuer Paxos’ board of directors, it was announced today.

“Over the last three years I have watched the growth and evolution of Polymarket’s product, business and team. They have demonstrated their commitment to building a strong and sustainable business.” Giancarlo said. “As the considerations in this space continue to evolve, this financing puts Polymarket in a remarkable position to capitalize on and expand its international success and product leadership.”