Tether Supports UAE-Based KAIO in $8 Million Funding Round to Integrate Emirati Funds onto the Blockchain

KAIO, a tokenization firm based in Abu Dhabi, announced on Monday that it has secured $8 million in funding from a strategic investment round led by Tether and other prominent crypto and institutional investors. This investment will enable KAIO to further develop its infrastructure for bringing traditional funds onto the blockchain. The funding round brings KAIO's total investment to $19 million, with new investors including Systemic Ventures, and repeat investors such as Further Ventures, Laser Digital, and Brevan Howard Digital. KAIO's primary objective is to create a platform that allows asset managers to distribute their funds on the blockchain. To achieve this, the firm has developed tokens for products from well-known companies like BlackRock, Brevan Howard, and Hamilton Lane, making them accessible through blockchain-based systems. With this new investment, KAIO plans to expand its product 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 from 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 connect the model to stablecoin flows, leveraging the liquidity of USDT, the most widely used stablecoin with a supply of $185 billion, often utilized for cross-border transactions, particularly in emerging markets. KAIO's goal is to channel this liquidity into regulated investment products. According to Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, 'KAIO's unique position in the market unlocks new pathways for capital formation and investment by bringing institutional-grade assets onto the blockchain and making them more broadly accessible, which in turn helps to expand participation in global financial markets.' KAIO's platform is designed with compliance in mind, incorporating regulatory frameworks and supporting regulated distribution channels 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 transactions exceeding $500 million.