KAIO Secures $8M in Funding from Tether to Revolutionize On-Chain Emirati Investments

In a strategic funding round, KAIO, a tokenization firm based in Abu Dhabi, has announced that it has raised $8 million, with Tether and several other prominent crypto and institutional investors participating. This investment brings KAIO's total funding to $19 million, with new investors such as Systemic Ventures joining the round, alongside existing backers like Further Ventures, Laser Digital, and Brevan Howard Digital. KAIO is focused on creating infrastructure that enables asset managers to distribute their funds on the blockchain. The company has already developed tokens for products from major firms like BlackRock, Brevan Howard, and Hamilton Lane, making them accessible through blockchain-based systems. With this new investment, KAIO plans to expand its offerings to include credit, structured investments, and exchange-traded funds, and is set to launch an on-chain fund in partnership with Mubadala Capital, a private equity firm with $385 billion in assets under management. By tokenizing institutional funds, KAIO aims to significantly lower the barriers to entry for investors, with minimum investments starting at just $100 for eligible users. Tether's involvement in the funding round highlights the potential for stablecoin flows to be channeled into regulated investment products. As the most widely used stablecoin, USDT has a supply of $185 billion and is often used for cross-border transactions, particularly in emerging markets. KAIO's platform is designed to embed compliance into its system, supporting regulated distribution frameworks in key jurisdictions such as Abu Dhabi, the Cayman Islands, and Singapore. To date, the company has tokenized approximately $100 million in assets and processed over $500 million in transactions. According to Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, "KAIO's innovative approach unlocks new opportunities for capital formation and investment, bringing institutional-grade assets on-chain and making them more broadly accessible, which in turn helps to expand participation in global financial markets."