KAIO, a tokenization firm based in Abu Dhabi, has secured $8 million in funding from Tether and other investors, bringing its total funding to $19 million. The company is building infrastructure to enable asset managers to distribute funds on the blockchain.
It has created tokens for products from companies like BlackRock, Brevan Howard, and Hamilton Lane, making them accessible through blockchain-based systems. With this investment, KAIO plans to expand its offerings to include credit, structured investments, and exchange-traded funds, and will launch an on-chain fund with Mubadala Capital, an Emirati private equity firm with $385 billion in assets under management. The goal is to lower the barriers to entry for investors, with minimum investments starting at $100.
Tether's involvement is expected to leverage stablecoin flows, with USDT being the most widely used stablecoin. KAIO aims to channel this liquidity into regulated investment products, with its platform embedding compliance and supporting regulated distribution frameworks in several jurisdictions, including Abu Dhabi, the Cayman Islands, and Singapore.
The company has tokenized around $100 million in assets and processed over $500 million in transactions.