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Abu Dhabi-regulated tokenization infrastructure company KAIO has closed an $8 million strategic financing round led by stablecoin issuer Tether, bringing its total funding to $19 million, according to a report from CoinDesk.
The latest round was led by Tether. New backers include Systemic Ventures, Further Ventures and Nomura-backed Laser Digital, while existing shareholder Brevan Howard Digital also participated.
KAIO’s focus is on moving traditional fund products from managers such as BlackRock, Brevan Howard and Hamilton Lane onto public blockchains as tokenized feeder funds.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said the investment is intended to push “institutional-grade assets onto the blockchain” and “achieving broader accessibility.” He argued that tokenization can “open new pathways for capital formation and investment” beyond the existing stablecoin market.
KAIO currently manages around $100 million in on-chain assets and has processed more than $500 million in transactions, according to CoinDesk. The report also notes that KAIO positions itself as a regional hub in the tokenization segment tracked by analytics firms such as RWA.xyz.
KAIO aims to lower entry barriers by allowing qualified users to access tokenized fund strategies with minimum tickets of roughly $100, compared with traditional private fund minimums that often run into six figures.
Looking ahead, KAIO plans to expand its product set to include on-chain credit, structured products and exchange-traded fund-style vehicles. The company also plans to deepen collaboration with Mubadala Capital.
Mubadala Capital oversees about $385 billion in assets and intends to work with KAIO to launch tokenized funds that provide professional investors digital access to private market strategies, mirroring similar experiments in Europe and Asia with tokenized treasuries and money market funds.
KAIO says its infrastructure embeds a compliance framework designed to support regulatory regimes in Abu Dhabi, the Cayman Islands and Singapore. The move comes as policymakers from Hong Kong’s stablecoin regime to the EU’s MiCA rules race to define standards for tokenized securities and fund tokens.
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