KAIO Secures $8M in Funding from Tether to Tokenize Emirati Assets on Blockchain

In a strategic funding round, UAE-based tokenization firm KAIO has raised $8 million, with notable investors including Tether and other prominent crypto and institutional entities. This investment brings KAIO's total funding to $19 million, with new investors such as Systemic Ventures joining the round, alongside returning investors Further Ventures, Laser Digital, and earlier backers like Brevan Howard Digital. KAIO specializes in creating infrastructure that enables asset managers to distribute funds on the blockchain. The firm has successfully tokenized products from renowned companies like BlackRock, Brevan Howard, and Hamilton Lane, making them accessible through blockchain-based systems. With this new investment, KAIO plans to expand its offerings to include credit, structured investments, and exchange-traded funds. The company is also set to launch an on-chain fund in collaboration with Mubadala Capital, a private equity firm with $385 billion in assets under management. 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 this initiative 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 Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, "KAIO's unique position 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 is designed with compliance in mind, embedding it into its system and 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 has processed over $500 million in transactions.