Dubai-based cloud kitchen start-up Kitopi is set to launch in Bahrain and Qatar, raising its market share to five countries across the GCC. Further expansion of its kitchens to Singapore and Malaysia in the books for the second half of 2022.
This comes in as the unicorn start-up, which has over 200 brand partners, 3,500 employees and 80 cloud kitchens across the GCC, is marking its fourth year anniversary.
In July 2021, Kitopi announced its $415 million Series C funding round, led by technology-focused investment fund, Softbank Group Corp’s Vision Fund 2. This investment, which marked the fund’s first investment in a UAE-headquartered company, gave Kitopi ‘Unicorn’ status.
Following the funding, Kitopi announced initial investments in five major F&B groups as part of its next phase of growth, including Cloud Restaurants (famous for Go! Greek and Go! Healthy), Leap Nation (famous for Tawook Nation and Luca), Right Bite, Under500, and Ichiban, a sushi delicacies chain.
As part of its new growth strategy, the Middle East unicorn start-up is dedicated to growing its network of local, regional and international brands, looking to invest up to $1 billion in food brands over the next 24 months, allowing them to leverage its proprietary technology and infrastructure to grow at an accelerated pace while preserving the customer experience. Alongside its new strategy, Kitopi will maintain its support for its portfolio of invested brands.
Kitopi, which stands for Kitchen Utopia, was founded by Mohamad Ballout, Saman Darkan, Bader Ataya and Andy Andreas to help food brands scale and expand across borders with minimal capital expenditures and operating expenses by taking care of the entire operations process- from supply chain and staff training to food preparation, delivery, and customer experience.
“To realise our mission of satisfying the world’s appetite, our commitment involves not only expanding our reach across countries and regions, but diversifying our offerings for customers. This means not only giving our customers access to the best brands and cuisines, but reaching them in ways that cater to different needs, preferences and lifestyle choices. As a consumer-focused company, we are always listening to our consumers and anticipating their needs to ensure we are always offering them the best in quality, in choices and in flexibility,” said Mohamad Ballout, co-founder and CEO of Kitopi.
“We have enjoyed an incredible four year-journey, all thanks to the support we have received from our talented colleagues, our trusted partners and our loyal customers, without whom we would not be where we are today. As we celebrate this milestone, we are looking ahead with gratitude, hope and an abundance of ambition. We are in a privileged and unique position to bring value to customers, to food brands, and to the F&B ecosystem at large. As we expand our global reach, we are setting our sights on creating possibilities in the F&B and food technology space beyond what we know as possible today, and we are not looking back,” he continued.
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