Meet the 29-year-old Brazilian who became the world’s youngest self-made billionaire

The announcement of a $1 billion investment round has put the name of Luana Lopez Lara, 29, at the heart of global searches and headlines. The Brazilian who grew up among ballet halls, advanced computing and laboratories at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one of the world’s most famous universities of technology and science) has just achieved the status of a “self-made” billionaire and has become the youngest person on the planet to achieve this feat without inheritance.

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This milestone was reached after Calci, the company that Luana co-founded and where she serves as COO, reached a market value of US$11 billion (R$58.41 billion). The jump occurred after a US$1 billion (R$5.31 billion) Series E round, led by Paradigm and with the participation of funds such as Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and Y Combinator.

From the intense Bolshoi routine to MIT

The daughter of a mathematics teacher and an electrical engineer, Luana grew up between Joinville and Belo Horizonte – the two cities that shaped her discipline-based education. When he was still young, he began an intense routine at the Bolshoi Theater School, where daily training began at seven in the morning and ended at nine in the evening, combining academic lessons with ballet lessons.

Luana Lopez Lara shares leadership of the company with her partner Tarek Mansour, with whom she founded the company in 2018, when they were still studying at MIT - Image: Disclosure — Luana Lopez Lara shares leadership of the company with her partner Tarek Mansour, with whom she founded the company in 2018, when they were still studying at MIT – Image: Disclosure

She also excelled in school competitions. A self-described “math geek”, she won a gold medal at the Brazilian Astronomy Olympiad and a bronze at the Santa Catarina Mathematical Olympiad. After high school, she lived for nine months in Austria, where she danced professionally, until she decided to make a change: switching theater for laboratories at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she graduated in computer science and mathematics.

At MIT, he met Tariq Mansour, the partner with whom he founded Kalshi in 2018, when he was still an undergraduate. Before starting her own venture, Luana completed internships at some of the largest managers on Wall Street, such as Bridgewater Associates, owned by Ray Dalio, Citadel, owned by Ken Griffin, and Five Rings Capital.

This milestone was reached after the market value of Calci, the company that Luana co-founded and where she is COO, reached US$11 billion (R$58.41 billion) – Image: Reproduction / Instagram

Today, as COO, she leads the strategy and operation of the platform, allowing contracts to be negotiated based on real events – such as elections, weather or awards – and moving more than US$1 billion (R$5.31 billion) weekly.

According to the New York Times, Luana owns between 10% and 20% of the company, a stake that she officially takes to the global billionaire group.