Kalshi partners with brokerage Alpaca as it tries to build its international audience

Prediction market platform Kalshi is working with brokerage and financial infrastructure startup Alpaca to bring its event contracts to an international audience, subject to local regulatory approval.

Individuals and businesses who use Alpaca's brokerage infrastructure will now have access to Kalshi's event contracts using the same technology utilized on the former's platform to trade other assets.

It comes after Alpaca registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to become a U.S.-licensed futures commission merchant , a brokerage that facilitates orders to buy or sell derivatives contracts, earlier this month.

Alpaca moved forward with a move into prediction markets because it has seen demand from its users for access to event contracts, chief brokerage officer Tony Lee told CNBC in an interview.

"Our mission is really to open up financial services to as many people around the world as possible, and you really have to go where the customer demand is," Lee said.

That global potential is what made a partnership with Alpaca appealing to Kalshi, vice president of business development Max Crowley said.

Alpaca has partnerships with more than 300 financial institutions and reaches 14 million brokerage accounts globally. As Kalshi seeks to go international, Crowley said having Alpaca's technology for brokerages in countries around the world to build on top of will make getting their prediction markets online in other markets happen faster, once local regulatory approval is received.

"They're a trusted brand, they're technology forward, their customers love working with them," Crowley said. "It's going to take us a lot of time to build the business globally, but this technical partnership enables that."