Cloud kitchen firm cooks up $60m funding
Kitopi will deploy the cash to create up to 100 locations worldwide before year-end
Dubai: The Dubai headquartered “cloud” kitchen operator Kitopi has pulled in $60 million in new funding commitments, which will be used to brew a major expansion.
The plan is to expand with 50 more locations in the US — where it also operates a headquarters in New York — and 100 globally by the end of this year.
This closes its Series B round of funding. Kitopi currently operates 30 kitchens in the US, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, UK and Kuwait.
It has partnerships with more than 100 restaurants, which includes Operation Falafel, Pizza Express, Right Bite and UNDER500.
Kitopi provides the back-end support for these restaurant partners, using its kitchens for the food supplies.
“This investment is a big win for our restaurant partners, as well as the hundreds of thousands of customers who can continue to access their favourite dishes,” said Mohamad Ballout, CEO and Co-founder of Kitopi.
The Kitopi model
The company operates a managed cloud kitchen platform that partners with restaurants to expand their delivery reach. The round was led by Knollwood and Lumia Capital with further participation from new and existing investors - BECO, CE-Ventures, GIC, Rise Capital, Reshape, Global Ventures and Wilshire Lane Partners.
“Kitopi has demonstrated its ability to differentiate itself from others in an increasingly crowded space, by collaborating closely with restaurants to achieve one common objective,” said Chris Rogers, Partner at Lumia Capital. ““I think if you’re a restaurant looking to scale, or if you’re a brand thinking of opening a new restaurant, this is the best way to succeed (and fast). We’re excited to see how Kitopi continues to reinvent the food tech space.”
Kitopi was founded in January 2018.