KAIO, a tokenization firm regulated by Abu Dhabi, announced on Monday that it has secured $8 million in funding from a strategic investment round backed by Tether and other prominent crypto and institutional investors. This investment aims to support KAIO's efforts in building infrastructure to transition traditional funds to blockchain-based systems.
The funding round brings KAIO's total investment to $19 million, with new investors such as Systemic Ventures participating, alongside returning investors like Further Ventures and Laser Digital. KAIO's existing backers, including Brevan Howard Digital, also joined the round.
The company specializes in developing infrastructure that enables asset managers to distribute their funds on the blockchain. KAIO has successfully tokenized products from renowned firms like BlackRock, Brevan Howard, and Hamilton Lane, making these tokens accessible through blockchain-based platforms.
With this new investment, KAIO plans to expand its offerings to include credit, structured investments, and exchange-traded funds. Furthermore, the firm intends to launch an on-chain fund in collaboration with Mubadala Capital, a private equity firm based in the UAE with $385 billion in assets under management. By tokenizing institutional funds, KAIO aims to lower 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.
Tether's involvement in this investment is expected to integrate the model with stablecoin flows, leveraging the vast liquidity of USDT, the most widely used stablecoin with a supply of $185 billion, often utilized for cross-border transactions, especially in emerging markets. KAIO seeks to channel this liquidity into regulated investment products.
According to Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, "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, thus expanding participation in global financial markets." KAIO's platform incorporates compliance into its system 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.