KAIO, a tokenization firm regulated in Abu Dhabi, announced on Monday that it has raised $8 million in a strategic funding round led by Tether and other prominent crypto and institutional investors. This investment brings the company's total funding to $19 million, with new investors including Systemic Ventures and returning 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 the blockchain.
The company has successfully tokenized products from major firms like BlackRock, Brevan Howard, and Hamilton Lane, making them available through blockchain-based systems. With this new investment, KAIO plans to expand its offerings to include credit, structured investments, and exchange-traded funds.
The company is also set to launch an on-chain fund in partnership 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 investments starting at $100 for eligible users, significantly lower than the typical thresholds for institutional funds.
Tether's involvement in the funding round is expected to connect the model to stablecoin flows, leveraging the liquidity of USDT, the most widely used stablecoin with a supply of $185 billion, to channel funds into regulated investment products. According to Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, "KAIO's unique approach unlocks new pathways for capital formation and investment by bringing institutional-grade assets on-chain and making them more broadly accessible, thereby expanding participation in global financial markets." KAIO's platform is designed to embed compliance into its system, supporting regulated distribution frameworks in 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.