KAIO Secures $8M in Funding from Tether to Bring Emirati Investments onto the Blockchain

KAIO, a tokenization firm regulated by Abu Dhabi, has announced the successful completion of an $8 million strategic funding round, led by Tether and supported by various crypto and institutional investors. This investment brings KAIO's total funding to $19 million, with new participants 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 funds on the blockchain. The company has developed tokens for products offered by prominent firms like BlackRock, Brevan Howard, and Hamilton Lane, making them accessible through blockchain-based systems. With this new investment, KAIO plans to expand its product offerings to include 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 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 this initiative is expected to leverage the stablecoin's vast liquidity, with USDT boasting a $185 billion supply, to channel funds into regulated investment products. According to Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, KAIO's unique position '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 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.