KAIO Receives $8 Million in Funding from Tether to Tokenize Emirati Funds on Blockchain

KAIO, a tokenization firm based in Abu Dhabi, has secured $8 million in funding from a strategic investment round led by Tether, along with several other prominent crypto and institutional investors. This investment brings KAIO's total funding to $19 million, with new participants including Systemic Ventures and repeat 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 blockchain platforms. The company has successfully tokenized products from reputable firms like BlackRock, Brevan Howard, and Hamilton Lane, making them accessible through blockchain-based systems. With this new funding, KAIO plans to expand its offerings to include credit, structured investments, and exchange-traded funds, and is set to launch an on-chain fund in collaboration with Mubadala Capital, a leading 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 investment requirements starting at $100 for eligible users, significantly lower than the typical thresholds for institutional funds. Tether's involvement in this investment 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 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 with compliance in mind, embedding regulatory frameworks and supporting regulated distribution channels in key 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.