KAIO Secures $8M in Funding from Tether to Bridge Traditional Funds and Blockchain

KAIO, a tokenization firm based in Abu Dhabi, announced on Monday that it has raised $8 million in a strategic funding round led by Tether, along with several other prominent crypto and institutional investors. This investment brings KAIO's total funding to $19 million, with new investors such as Systemic Ventures joining, and Further Ventures and Laser Digital participating again alongside earlier backers including Brevan Howard Digital. KAIO is dedicated to developing infrastructure that enables asset managers to distribute their funds on the blockchain. The company has created tokens for products from notable 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 collaboration with Mubadala Capital, a private equity firm from the UAE with $385 billion in assets under management. By tokenizing institutional funds, KAIO aims to reduce the barriers to entry for investors, with minimum investments starting at $100 for eligible users, significantly lower than the typical thresholds for institutional funds. The involvement of Tether, the issuer of the most widely used stablecoin USDT, ties the model to stablecoin flows, with the goal of channeling liquidity into regulated investment products. "KAIO's unique position opens up new avenues for capital formation and investment by bringing institutional-grade assets onto the blockchain and making them more widely accessible, which helps to expand participation in global financial markets," stated Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether. KAIO's platform integrates compliance into its system and supports regulated distribution frameworks in various jurisdictions, including 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.