KAIO Secures $8 Million in Funding from Tether to Revolutionize Emirati Fund Tokenization

In a strategic funding round, KAIO, a tokenization firm based in Abu Dhabi, has raised $8 million with the support of Tether and other prominent crypto and institutional investors. This investment brings KAIO's total funding to $19 million, with new investors such as Systemic Ventures joining the round, alongside returning investors like Further Ventures and Laser Digital. KAIO's mission is to create infrastructure that enables asset managers to distribute their funds on blockchain rails. The company has successfully tokenized products from renowned 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. The firm is also set to launch an on-chain fund in collaboration with Mubadala Capital, a private equity firm from the UAE 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. The involvement of Tether, the issuer of the popular stablecoin USDT, is expected to facilitate the flow of stablecoin liquidity into regulated investment products. According to Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, KAIO's innovative approach unlocks new pathways for capital formation and investment by bringing institutional-grade assets on-chain and making them more widely accessible. KAIO's platform is designed with compliance in mind, supporting regulated distribution frameworks in various jurisdictions, including 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.