Tether Supports UAE-Based KAIO in $8 Million Funding Round to Tokenize Emirati Assets

KAIO, a tokenization firm regulated by the Abu Dhabi authorities, has announced that it has secured $8 million in funding from a strategic investment round led by Tether and 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 the round, alongside returning investors like Further Ventures and Laser Digital, as well as earlier backers including Brevan Howard Digital. KAIO is focused on creating infrastructure that enables asset managers to distribute their funds on the blockchain. The company has developed tokens for products from major firms 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, and is set to launch an on-chain fund in partnership 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 investment requirements starting at just $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 Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, "KAIO's innovative approach unlocks new avenues for capital formation and investment by bringing institutional-grade assets onto the blockchain and making them more widely accessible, which helps to expand participation in global financial markets." KAIO's platform is designed to embed compliance into its system and supports 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 has processed over $500 million in transactions.