KAIO, a tokenization firm regulated by Abu Dhabi, announced on Monday that it has secured $8 million in funding from a strategic investment round backed by Tether and other prominent crypto and institutional investors. This investment aims to support KAIO's mission to develop infrastructure that enables asset managers to distribute funds on blockchain rails.
The company has created tokens for products from notable firms such as 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, with the goal of launching 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 seeks to lower the barriers to entry for investors, with minimum investments 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 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 to embed compliance into its system and support 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.