3/6/2026
Jay Malavia, an MCS student at the Siebel School of Computing and Data Science, and his start-up Kairos were recently backed by the Andreessen Horowitz Venture Capital Fund, a16zcrypto. The company is building a trading terminal for prediction markets, allowing traders to have what he calls "the power of an institutional desk on a laptop for anyone in the world.”
There's a strong legacy of people doing great things, and I knew Illinois would support us moving forward. That's what drew me to the school. — Jay Malavia
Jay Malavia, an MCS student at the Siebel School of Computing and Data Science, and his start-up Kairos were recently backed by the Andreessen Horowitz Venture Capital Fund, a16zcrypto. Malavia says “Our funding round totals $2.5 million, led by a16z crypto and Geneva Trading. Illinois Ventures, and Illini Angels have invested a lot in the round.
Why? He wanted to build something great, and he is intrigued by prediction markets. The power of aggregating information that computing and data science offer has led to the rise of financial tools that measure probabilities in everything from product launches to electoral politics to sports and culture. The need to foresee economic trends before they happen is growing.
A Chicago native raised in Naperville, Malavia says, “I've always known I was going to go to Illinois. While I considered universities such as Stanford or Berkeley, I wanted to stay close to home. Illinois has a strong entrepreneurial DNA: YouTube, Netscape, PayPal, Jump, and some of the big companies on the internet came from Illinois. It's not often that you have one of the best computer science schools in the world in your backyard.”
“It's about building something that changes the world. It’s not hard to imagine what you can do when you live in the same dorm as Marc Andreessen, eat in the same dining hall as Jawed Karim, and take the same classes as Max Levchin. Illinois breeds talent.
What drew me to the school and why I was pursuing my master's in computer science was the ability to push the bounds of what's possible and reshape the industry and the world.”
What's the hardest problem that you can find that really speaks to you that you can change? That energizes me, and that energizes my team. We are people who want to be building things for problems that are unsolvable, and they believe that they are the ones to solve it. — Jay Malavia
He says that “What led me here and essentially laid the framework and building blocks was that reaching out to Illinois alumni is extremely helpful. Illinois alumni share our motivation in building something great and are always there to pick up the phone. I think a lot of folks are very excited about what we're doing, and we have a strong reputation in Illinois, and because of that, we have a good support network in place.”
Malavia made the most of his time at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, obtaining his B.S. in data science with a computer science minor from the School of Information Sciences.
“I love the Research Park! I got to work for the US Army, AbbVie, Country Financial, all during my college experience. While I didn’t have to do that, I liked finding challenges and solving problems. I was also working remotely at NASA full-time during the school year, along with classes, during my junior year, first semester.
The following summer, I built models for Chicago-based trading firm Geneva Trading. Kairos emerged in the summer of 2025. I worked at Cboe Labs as a quantitative researcher, developing trading strategies for newly created tradable instruments and products.
My boss there, Daniel Kipnis, was also a U. of I. alum and an incredible mentor. After finishing my project early, I took time to explore the new initiatives around the office. After applying my knowledge of the economic viability of market structures, it was clear that prediction markets were going to be incredible.
I started looking around the office for new initiatives. I was familiar with prediction markets and went deeply into researching their utility, how they are created, how they are built, what a DCM is, and the underlying legal frameworks that enable prediction markets like Kalshi to operate.”
Malavia recalls that “I was shocked, and I thought, ‘Wow, this is going to change the world.’ At the time I was in conversations with Cboe to develop technology to enable their efforts in prediction markets.”
Malavia could have worked at a number of trading firms. However, he says he felt that there was something larger going on, because, “if Cboe was this excited about building prediction market infrastructure, this market was going to explode.”
At the time of Malavia and Kairos co-founder Zayd Alzein’s initial thesis, the only legal prediction markets were Kalshi in the United States. Since then, Robinhood, Coinbase, PrizePicks, Polymarket, and Opinion Labs have all joined the space.
“What you see throughout history,” he notes, “is that when new industries are created, as we saw with the rise of electronic trading, usually the participants that help create these exchanges, the early users, are left behind in trade.”
Why is it that throughout history, all the technology always goes to institutions and gatekeepers? Now, we have the chance to define an industry. We have the chance to define the future of financial markets. That is what we are doing. — Jay Malavia
His co-founder and family friend, Zayd Alzein, got a B.S. in computer science at the University of Illinois Chicago. Alzein worked on low-latency data streaming and order book reconstruction at Cboe Global Markets and built execution infrastructure for Solana trading platforms. The duo came together to build Kairos.
Before YouTube, what was there? There wasn't anything, and that's what we want to do. We want to build something categorically different. — Jay Malavia
The start-up was named, Malavia says, “because it represents the opportune moment in time. Trading is all about the right moment in time, the opportune time to enter a trade. We have this moment now, to redefine an industry.
While Kairos has built the most performant trading terminal for prediction markets, they are not supporting it there. They are building a community. There's a much larger ecosystem that they are creating.
The reason that we built Kairos is to give the performance infrastructure, that sophisticated trading terminal, the power of an institutional desk on a laptop for anyone in the world.”
You could call it a Bloomberg Terminal for prediction markets.
“We’re very grassroots; we started by posting on social forums and emerged as a prominent player in the space. I know the Kalshi executive team, and chatted with Tarek Mansour, and work closely with John Wang, the head of crypto there. They are some of our biggest advocates.
I've been in many chats with the entire Polymarket teams as well. They love us because all we do is build systems their traders want.
On top of that, we know their traders just as well as they do, and we're trying to help them. We had offers to be acquired by exchanges early on, but we are dead set on this vision of building the next multibillion-dollar company out of Illinois.”
Malavia had decisions to make when he graduated. He says that,
“After finishing my undergrad at Illinois, I wanted to go deeper into computer science. I wanted to really push myself. I received multiple offers to work at different places, but I want to change the world right now, and to do that, you have to really find something that needs to be changed. What are the issues? There are many problems, but what problem is meant for you?”
So he began working toward a Master of Computer Science (MCS) degree from the Siebel School of Computing and Data Science in The Grainger College of Engineering.
Paul Magelli and Jacob Kinsey at Illinois Ventures have been incredible. I call them at very random times in the day, asking for advice or telling them stories. I think they live vicariously through me because I get a fair share of interesting things that happen. They are very instrumental and great mentors.
Kairos is an impressive platform with extensive features. The experience the team brings to prediction markets is exciting. I love to see what Kairos is building for prediction markets in the capital of options/futures markets of the world, Chicago. — Max Mershon, Sr. Data Engineer, Polymarket
Kinsey wrote on LinkedIn that he first met Malavia when Malavia was a member of Illinois Business Consulting in 2022. Kinsey says that Malavia “reconnected with me after I joined Illinois Ventures in September 2025. Not only was he passionate and knowledgeable about prediction markets, but he also had a working MVP (Minimum Viable Product) that he showed me. As someone who enjoys coding myself, I could recognize the quality of his work and the significance of what he was able to accomplish to date.”
“In October 2025, Illinois Ventures invited Kairos to present at the second annual Founders Week in Champaign,” Kinsey wrote on LinkedIn, “where they immediately engaged the Illinois Ventures network, Malavia presented in a closed-door Illini Angels meeting, and formed connections that helped advance the company’s mission. In parallel,” Kinsey continued, “Kairos began discussions with a16z crypto around leading the round. As the financing came together, Illinois Ventures participated through both the Angel Network and Deep Tech Fund.”
Jay is exactly the kind of partner we want to work with, and we would back them again in a heartbeat. Kairos had a lot of deal interest and they purposely held open space in the round because Illinois Ventures was an early supporter. That kind of loyalty is rare.
— Jacob Kinsey, Illinois Ventures
“We talked to a couple of firms,” Malavia says. “We loved a16z crypto. We loved everything about the firm. We love how they support their founders. It's the best firm in the world, it was a no-brainer that this is what it's going to take to fulfill our shared view of the world.”
We want engineers from Illinois. We want the ones who are looking to work on the most difficult problems in the world. We're looking for those who are trying to redefine industries. We’re looking for those who want to change the world, and it will be extremely difficult, but just as rewarding. — Jay Malavia
As the February 16, 2025 a16z crypto news release announcing funding for Kairos put it, “the market is evolving faster than its tools.”
“Kairos has also learned fast. It is important to partner with founders who can take advice and move quickly. Kairos demonstrated time and time again that they would hear what we said and come back with progress,” Kinsey says.
Will the Kairos team look to move westward to the Bay Area?
“We love our Illinois connections,” Malavia confirms. “I know the trading firms in Chicago well; we know all the folks here, so we like Illinois. We love our network here. That said, because we're a technology company, we'll be moving around. We're going to go where our users are to meet them in person if we need to. We’ll attend conferences around the world. So, we'll be moving around, but yes, there's always a special space in my heart for Illinois.”