Unicorn alert: Kitopi announces $415 million Series C funding round 

Kitopi, the UAE-based managed cloud kitchen platform, announced today the completion of its $415 million Series C funding round.

The round was led by Softbank Vision Fund 2, with participation from Chimera, DisruptAD, B. Riley, Dogus Group, Next Play Capital and Nordstar.

Kitopi will channel the new funding to fuel its continued expansion within the Middle East and support entry to new markets such as Southeast Asia, which has a highly attractive and fast-growing online food delivery market. Kitopi will also continue to innovate and expand its tech stack, grow its strategic restaurant partnerships and build a best-in-class team across the organization.

This round marks SoftBank Vision Fund 2’s first investment in a UAE-headquartered company.

Kitopi, which stands for Kitchen Utopia, was founded in January 2018 by Mohamad Ballout (CEO), Saman Darkan (Chief Technology Officer), Bader Ataya (Chief Growth Officer) and Andy Arenas (Chief Property Officer), with a mission to satisfy the world’s appetite. Headquartered in Dubai, UAE, Kitopi currently has over 2500 employees in its 4 markets, in addition to Krakow, Poland, where its engineering hub is located, and its global CX centre in Dubai.

Kitopi operates 60+ cloud kitchens across the UAE, KSA, Kuwait and more recently, Bahrain. It partners with restaurants and F&B brands, enabling them to expand their reach through its kitchens, in as little as 14 days.

Kitopi takes care of the entire operation - from supply chain, staff training, food preparation, delivery to customer experience. It works with over 200+ F&B partners, including several globally recognised brands such as Papa Johns, Nathan’s Famous and iHOP. The cloud kitchen platform has also diversified its offerings by leveraging its supply chain to include subscription-based meal plans and on-demand groceries delivery.

A large part of its competitive advantage is its proprietary Smart Kitchen Operating System (“SKOS”). SKOS is a suite of applications that optimizes the performance of its cloud kitchen operations in real-time. The solution focuses on delivering a great customer experience across multiple brands in a single kitchen by maximizing operational efficiency. Since its launch, SKOS has enabled Kitopi to scale to 200+ brands in 60+ sites over just 3 years.

In this period, its kitchens have been able to double the order volume while reducing kitchen preparation time by 40%. One application, for instance, uses data science to predict when drivers will arrive and how long a menu item would take to cook, then auto sequence which items are cooked first, to enhance speed.

“These past 3 and a half years have taught us the importance of pursuing our vision with grit, focus, and building a high-performance culture,” Mohamad Ballout, CEO and Cofounder of Kitopi said. “Our focus now is to expand our presence within the Middle East and to Southeast Asia while continuing to innovate and pioneer in the cloud kitchen space.”

Faisal Rehman, Managing Partner for SoftBank Investment Advisers, said, “Constraints placed on the hospitality sector by the global pandemic have rapidly catalyzed the value proposition of cloud kitchens for customers and restaurant brands. We believe Kitopi’s proprietary technology is changing the unit economics of food delivery in providing more choice to more customers, in more places. Moreover, we are delighted to welcome Kitopi as SoftBank’s first UAE-headquartered investment and are excited by the company’s growth prospects in the region and beyond.”