KAIO Secures $8 Million in Funding from Tether to Revolutionize Emirati On-Chain Investments

In a strategic funding round, UAE-based tokenization firm KAIO has successfully raised $8 million with backing from Tether and other 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 specializes in creating infrastructure that enables asset managers to distribute their funds via blockchain, having already tokenized products from major firms like BlackRock, Brevan Howard, and Hamilton Lane. The company plans to utilize this investment to expand its offerings into credit, structured investments, and exchange-traded funds, including the launch of an on-chain fund in collaboration with Mubadala Capital, an Emirati private equity firm managing $385 billion in assets. By tokenizing institutional funds, KAIO seeks to significantly lower the barriers to entry for investors, with minimum investments as low as $100 for eligible users. The involvement of Tether, the issuer of the widely-used USDT stablecoin, 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 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, 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.