In a recent strategic funding round, KAIO, a tokenization firm regulated by Abu Dhabi, announced that it has raised $8 million with backing from Tether and several other prominent crypto and institutional investors. This investment brings the company's total funding to $19 million, with new investors including Systemic Ventures and repeat investors such as Further Ventures, Laser Digital, and Brevan Howard Digital. KAIO specializes in creating infrastructure that enables asset managers to distribute their funds on blockchain rails.
The company has successfully tokenized products from leading firms 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, and is set to launch an on-chain fund in collaboration with Mubadala Capital, an Emirati 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 funding round is expected to facilitate the flow of stablecoin liquidity into regulated investment products, with USDT being the most widely used stablecoin, boasting a $185 billion supply. According to Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, "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 to embed compliance into its system and support regulated distribution frameworks, including those in 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.