KAIO Secures $8 Million in Funding from Tether to Bridge Traditional Funds and Blockchain

KAIO, a tokenization firm headquartered in Abu Dhabi, has announced the successful completion of an $8 million strategic funding round, with Tether and several other prominent crypto and institutional investors participating. This investment brings KAIO's total funding to $19 million, with new investors such as Systemic Ventures joining the round, alongside returning investors like Further Ventures, Laser Digital, and Brevan Howard Digital. KAIO is focused on creating infrastructure that enables asset managers to distribute their funds on blockchain rails, having already tokenized products from major firms including BlackRock, Brevan Howard, and Hamilton Lane. The firm 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 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. 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 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 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 processed over $500 million in transactions.