In a strategic funding round, KAIO has raised $8 million with backing from Tether and other prominent crypto and institutional investors, bringing its total funding to $19 million. The round saw participation from new investors such as Systemic Ventures, as well as returning investors like Further Ventures, Laser Digital, and Brevan Howard Digital. KAIO's innovative platform enables asset managers to distribute their funds on the blockchain, having already created tokens for products from major firms including BlackRock, Brevan Howard, and Hamilton Lane. With this new investment, KAIO aims to expand its offerings to include credit, structured investments, and exchange-traded funds, with plans to launch an on-chain fund in collaboration with Mubadala Capital, a private equity firm managing $385 billion in assets.
By tokenizing institutional funds, KAIO seeks to significantly lower the barriers to entry for investors, with minimum investments starting at just $100 for eligible users. The involvement of Tether, the issuer of the popular USDT stablecoin, is set 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, helping expand participation in global financial markets.' KAIO's platform prioritizes compliance, embedding it into its system and supporting regulated distribution frameworks in key 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.