In a strategic funding round, KAIO, a tokenization firm based in Abu Dhabi, has raised $8 million with the support of Tether and other notable crypto and institutional investors. This investment brings the company's total funding to $19 million, with new investors such as Systemic Ventures and repeat investors like Further Ventures and Laser Digital joining alongside earlier backers including Brevan Howard Digital.
KAIO is focused on developing infrastructure that enables asset managers to distribute funds on the blockchain, having already created tokens for products from prominent firms like BlackRock, Brevan Howard, and Hamilton Lane, making them accessible through blockchain-based systems. The company plans to utilize this investment to expand its offerings into credit, structured investments, and exchange-traded funds, with the goal of launching an on-chain fund in collaboration with Mubadala Capital, an Emirati private equity firm managing $385 billion in assets.
By tokenizing institutional funds, KAIO aims to reduce the barriers to entry for investors, with minimum investment requirements starting at $100 for eligible users, significantly lower than the typical thresholds for institutional funds. The involvement of Tether, the issuer of the popular stablecoin USDT with a $185 billion supply, is expected to facilitate the flow of stablecoin liquidity into regulated investment products.
According to Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, "KAIO's unique approach unlocks new pathways for capital formation and investment by bringing institutional-grade assets on-chain and making them more broadly accessible, which helps expand participation in global financial markets." KAIO's platform is designed with compliance in mind, supporting regulated distribution frameworks in 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.