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

In a strategic move to bolster its operations, KAIO, a regulated tokenization firm headquartered in Abu Dhabi, has successfully raised $8 million in a funding round led by Tether, alongside participation from prominent crypto and institutional investors. This latest round brings the company's total funding to $19 million, with new investors such as Systemic Ventures joining the fray, while existing backers, including Further Ventures and Laser Digital, also participated. KAIO is focused on creating infrastructure that enables asset managers to distribute their funds on the blockchain. The firm has already tokenized products from renowned companies like BlackRock, Brevan Howard, and Hamilton Lane, making these products accessible through blockchain-based systems. With this new investment, KAIO plans to expand its offerings to include credit, structured investments, and exchange-traded funds. One of its key objectives is to launch an on-chain fund in collaboration with Mubadala Capital, an Emirati private equity firm that manages assets worth $385 billion. By tokenizing institutional funds, KAIO aims to significantly lower the barriers to entry for investors, with minimum investment thresholds starting at $100 for eligible users, substantially lower than the typical requirements for institutional funds. The involvement of Tether, a leading stablecoin issuer, is set to integrate the model with stablecoin flows, potentially channeling liquidity into regulated investment products. According to Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, "KAIO's unique position opens up new avenues for capital formation and investment by bringing institutional-grade assets on-chain and making them more widely accessible, which in turn helps expand participation in global financial markets." KAIO's platform is designed with compliance in mind, embedding regulatory requirements into its system and supporting regulated distribution frameworks across jurisdictions, including Abu Dhabi, the Cayman Islands, and Singapore. To date, the company has tokenized approximately $100 million in assets and processed transactions exceeding $500 million.