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

In a strategic funding round, KAIO, a regulated tokenization firm in Abu Dhabi, has raised $8 million with backing from Tether and 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 previous backers, including Brevan Howard Digital. KAIO is focused on creating infrastructure that enables asset managers to distribute funds on the blockchain. The company has already tokenized products from major firms like BlackRock, Brevan Howard, and Hamilton Lane, making them accessible through blockchain-based systems. With this new funding, KAIO plans to expand its offerings to include credit, structured investments, and exchange-traded funds, and is set to launch an on-chain fund with Mubadala Capital, an Emirati private equity firm managing $385 billion in assets. By tokenizing institutional funds, KAIO aims to lower the barriers to entry for investors, with minimum investments starting at $100 for eligible users, significantly lower than the typical thresholds for institutional funds. Tether's involvement in KAIO ties into the potential for stablecoin flows, given USDT's position as the most popular stablecoin with a $185 billion supply, often used for cross-border transactions, especially in emerging markets. KAIO seeks to channel this liquidity into regulated investment products. According to Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, 'KAIO's unique position opens up 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 embeds compliance and supports regulated distribution frameworks in several 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.