The Gulf region’s embrace of the ghost kitchen concept drew global attention in November 2019. That’s when the PIF, the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, invested $400 million in Travis Kalanick’s CloudKitchens startup.
Kalanick is of course best known as Uber’s founder and the embodiment of the Silicon Valley “tech bro”. In 2016, following his ouster from Uber, Kalanick launched CloudKitchens as a platform for entrepreneurs to create “virtual restaurants”.
Since that PIF investment (and in some cases before), companies serving the MENA market, especially the UAE and KSA, have proliferated and have themselves raised substantial amounts of capital.
More on this phenomenon a bit later. First, a brief primer on ghost kitchens.
A Simple Idea
The terms “cloud kitchen” and “ghost kitchen” can be used interchangeably.
The ghost kitchen concept is fairly simple. Set up a commercial kitchen, ideally in an industrial zone where the real estate is cheaper. And use that kitchen as a stand-alone, branded virtual restaurant operation. Or as a white-label kitchen for other virtual brands or general restaurant brands that need to scale up their carry-out operations. A single ghost kitchen can accommodate multiple brands.
Globally, this model has proliferated. Companies with names like CloudKitchens, Ghost Kitchens, Kitopi, Kitchen United, Zuul, Virtuant, and others are competing fiercely. One of these players, Taiwan-based JustKitchen, was recently listed on Canada’s TSX Venture Exchange.
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