KAIO Secures $8 Million 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 the support of Tether and several other prominent crypto and institutional investors. This investment brings the company's total funding to $19 million, with new investors such as Systemic Ventures joining the round, alongside returning investors like Further Ventures, Laser Digital, and Brevan Howard Digital. KAIO specializes in creating infrastructure that enables asset managers to distribute their funds on the blockchain, having already tokenized products from notable firms like BlackRock, Brevan Howard, and Hamilton Lane, making them accessible through blockchain-based systems. The company plans to utilize the investment to expand its offerings into areas such as credit, structured investments, and exchange-traded funds, including the launch of an on-chain fund in collaboration with Mubadala Capital, an Emirati private equity firm managing $385 billion in assets. By tokenizing institutional funds, KAIO seeks to lower the barriers to entry for investors, with minimum investments as low as $100 for eligible users, significantly below the typical thresholds for institutional investments. Tether's involvement in this funding round is expected to leverage the stablecoin's vast liquidity, with USDT boasting a $185 billion supply, to channel it into regulated investment products. According to Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, "KAIO's unique approach unlocks new pathways for capital formation and investment by making institutional-grade assets more accessible on the blockchain, thereby expanding 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.