KAIO Secures $8 Million in Funding from Tether to Expand Blockchain-Based Investment Infrastructure

In a recent strategic funding round, KAIO, a regulated tokenization firm based in Abu Dhabi, announced that it 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 existing backers including Further Ventures, Laser Digital, and Brevan Howard Digital. KAIO is focused on creating infrastructure that enables asset managers to distribute their funds on blockchain rails. The company has successfully tokenized products from major firms like BlackRock, Brevan Howard, and Hamilton Lane, making these funds 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, an Emirati private equity firm with $385 billion in assets under management. By tokenizing institutional funds, KAIO aims to significantly lower the barriers to entry for investors, with minimum investments starting at $100 for eligible users, substantially below the typical thresholds for institutional funds. The involvement of Tether, with its stablecoin USDT, is expected to facilitate the flow of liquidity into regulated investment products, leveraging the stablecoin's vast $185 billion supply and its widespread use in cross-border transactions, particularly in emerging markets. 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 broadly accessible, which in turn helps expand participation in global financial markets." KAIO's platform is designed to embed compliance into its system, supporting regulated distribution frameworks in several 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.