In a strategic funding round, KAIO, a tokenization firm regulated by Abu Dhabi, has announced that it has secured $8 million in funding, backed by Tether and several other prominent crypto and institutional investors. This investment brings the company's total funding to $19 million, with new investors such as Systemic Ventures joining, and Further Ventures and Laser Digital participating again alongside earlier backers, including Brevan Howard Digital. KAIO is focused on developing infrastructure that enables asset managers to distribute funds on the blockchain.
The company has created tokens for products from firms such as BlackRock, Brevan Howard, and Hamilton Lane, making them accessible through blockchain-based systems. With this new investment, KAIO plans to expand its offerings to include credit, structured investments, and exchange-traded funds, and is set to launch an on-chain fund with Mubadala Capital, a private equity firm from the UAE with $385 billion in assets under management. By tokenizing institutional funds, KAIO aims to lower the barriers to entry for investors, with minimum investments starting at $100 for eligible users, significantly lower than typical thresholds for institutional funds. The involvement of Tether, the issuer of the popular stablecoin USDT, ties the model to stablecoin flows, with the goal of channeling liquidity 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 embeds compliance into its system and supports regulated distribution frameworks in several jurisdictions, including Abu Dhabi, the Cayman Islands, and Singapore. To date, the company has tokenized around $100 million in assets and processed over $500 million in transactions.