Tether Invests in KAIO's $8 Million Funding Round to Introduce Emirati Funds to Blockchain

KAIO, a tokenization firm regulated by Abu Dhabi, announced on Monday that it has secured $8 million in a strategic funding round supported by Tether and other prominent crypto and institutional investors. This investment is aimed at building infrastructure to transition traditional funds to blockchain rails. The funding round brings KAIO's total funding to $19 million, with new investors such as Systemic Ventures and returning investors like Further Ventures and Laser Digital. Existing backers, including Brevan Howard Digital, also participated in the round. KAIO is focused on creating infrastructure that enables asset managers to distribute funds on the blockchain. The firm has developed tokens for products from companies like BlackRock, Brevan Howard, and Hamilton Lane, making them accessible through blockchain-based systems. With this investment, KAIO plans to expand its offerings to include credit, structured investments, and exchange-traded funds. The company intends 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 reduce 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 the funding round connects the model to stablecoin flows, leveraging the vast liquidity of USDT, the most popular stablecoin with a supply of $185 billion, often used for cross-border transactions, especially in emerging markets. KAIO seeks to channel this liquidity 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, which helps expand participation in global financial markets.' KAIO's platform embeds compliance into its system and supports regulated distribution frameworks in several jurisdictions, including Abu Dhabi, the Cayman Islands, and Singapore. The company has tokenized approximately $100 million in assets and has processed over $500 million in transactions.