KAIO Secures $8 Million in Funding from Tether to Bring Emirati Funds onto the Blockchain

KAIO, a tokenization firm regulated by Abu Dhabi, has announced the successful closure of an $8 million strategic funding round, led by Tether and supported by several prominent crypto and institutional investors. This investment brings KAIO's total funding to $19 million, with new participants including Systemic Ventures, and repeat investors such as Further Ventures, Laser Digital, and Brevan Howard Digital. KAIO is focused on creating infrastructure that enables asset managers to distribute their funds on the blockchain. The company has already tokenized products from major 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 reduce the barriers to entry for investors, with minimum investment thresholds starting at $100 for eligible users, significantly lower than those typically required for institutional funds. The involvement of Tether, the issuer of the popular stablecoin USDT, is expected to facilitate the flow of stablecoin liquidity into regulated investment products. According to Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, 'KAIO's innovative approach unlocks new opportunities for capital formation and investment by bringing institutional-grade assets onto the blockchain and making them more widely accessible, thereby expanding participation in global financial markets.' KAIO's platform is designed with compliance in mind, supporting regulated distribution frameworks in key jurisdictions such as 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.