How Hispanic-owned small businesses can use prediction markets to hedge risk

For Hispanic entrepreneurs across the country, running a small business means making countless decisions about the things you can control: what you sell, who you hire, how you serve customers, and where you invest. But some of the biggest factors affecting a business’s bottom line, from weather to shipping costs to public policy changes, cannot be controlled.

Through its new partnership with the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC), America’s largest small business advocacy group, and the Greater Washington Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Kalshi is expanding access to risk management tools and education for Hispanic-owned businesses across the country.

Hispanic-run small businesses face many of the same unpredictable risks as larger companies, but historically haven’t had access to the same financial tools to manage them. Farmers have hedged crop prices for more than a century, while airlines routinely hedge fuel costs to protect against sudden price spikes. Traditional hedging, however, requires brokers, significant capital, and minimum trades in the thousands of dollars, putting these tools out of reach.

Kalshi gives users another way to manage uncertainty. 

Hedging isn’t about predicting the future perfectly. It’s about preparing financially for risks outside a business owner’s control.

On Kalshi, a business can purchase a contract tied to a specific risk. If that event occurs, the contract pays out, helping offset the financial impact. If it doesn’t, the business’s cost is limited to what it paid for the contract. Unlike many traditional hedging products, Kalshi doesn’t require a broker, and trades can start with just a few dollars.

Small businesses are already putting that model to work.

Zest Tea, a Maryland tea company, worked with Kalshi to hedge against new tariffs and changing container freight rates that could increase the cost of its imported tea. And 28Wishes, a local ice cream shop whose sales drop 20% when temperatures fall below 70 degrees or it rains, spends about $20 a day on Kalshi weather markets. During cold snaps, those payouts can cover up to $1,500 a month, roughly 43% of the shop’s rent.

Different businesses face different risks, but the principle is the same: when you can’t control an outcome, hedging can help manage the financial consequences.

Not every risk will have a corresponding market, and no financial tool can entirely eliminate uncertainty. But prediction markets can give entrepreneurs another way to prepare for it.

That’s the idea behind Kalshi’s partnership with USHCC and the Greater Washington Hispanic Chamber of Commerce: helping more Hispanic entrepreneurs understand the risk management tools available to them and how those tools could apply to their businesses. The partnership pairs USHCC's reach — a national network representing over five million HBEs through more than 260 local chambers and business associations — with Kalshi's regulated markets and educational programming. 

Hispanic-owned businesses are the fastest-growing segment of American entrepreneurship — there are now more than five million Hispanic Business Enterprises in the U.S., contributing over $800 billion to the economy each year. This growing slice of the economy needs an accessible, trusted partner to help mitigate everyday risk.

Through the collaboration, USHCC will connect its members with technical assistance and financial education focused on navigating economic uncertainty, while Kalshi will provide the tools to act on it.

Kalshi is regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Businesses across the country have used its markets to hedge risks involving weather, tariffs, freight costs and other unpredictable events, with trades in Kalshi’s small-business examples ranging from roughly $30 a day to six-figure positions.

For entrepreneurs, that means thinking about prediction markets not only as a way to express a view about what happens next, but as a tool to prepare for what happens next.

Hispanic-owned small businesses across the country are driving the American economy forward. Greater access to risk management tools can provide another option for protecting margins, planning around uncertainty, and building more resilient businesses.

The best risk management tools shouldn’t be reserved for the biggest companies. Kalshi is proud to partner with USHCC to support small businesses nationwide.