CloudKitchens
Ghost kitchen and virtual restaurant company From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
CloudKitchens is a ghost kitchen and technology company run by Uber's cofounder Travis Kalanick.
| Industry | Food industry |
|---|---|
| Founders | |
Area served | United States |
Key people | Travis Kalanick (CEO) |
| Services | Software, Real Estate, Virtual restaurant |
| Parent | City Storage Systems LLC |
| Website | cloudkitchens |
CloudKitchens' tech and real estate is focused on growing the restaurant and food-delivery markets.[1] It owns thousands of units of real estate and its software is used by hundreds of thousands of restaurants.[2]
History
Summarize
Perspective
The first CloudKitchens facility opened in Los Angeles, California.[3]
In 2018, Travis Kalanick purchased a controlling stake of the infant company from Sky Dayton and Diego Berdakin when it owned two facilities.[4] It was purchased for $150 million inside a holding company named City Storage Systems LLC.[5][6]
In January 2019, Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, Public Investment Fund, invested $400 million in the startup's Series A round. By that time, Kalanick had invested $300 million in the company; he sold $1.4 billion of his Uber stock by May 2019.[7][8]
In 2021, CloudKitchens began selling software to Brick and Mortar restaurants.[9] In November that year, CloudKitchens raised another $850 million in a funding round that included Microsoft.[10] Microsoft had previously backed Kalanick's Uber.[11]
In 2022, Kitchen United aimed to compete with CloudKitchens by raising $100 million dollars of venture funding.[12] Kitchen United was not successful. It sold its real estate in late 2023.[13]
CloudKitchens intentionally maintained a low media profile for years.[14] In 2024, its CEO began speaking publicly about the companies plans,[15] in an apparent loosening of its stealth policies.
Real Estate
CloudKitchens builds ghost kitchens and other real estate for the food industry. A ghost kitchen (or "dark kitchen"[7]) allows the kitchen space to operate as a commissary to others, which lets costs be shared and can exist in lower-overhead spaces than a standard restaurant.[16][17][18] Ghost kitchen partners include:
Some of CloudKitchens' real estate includes software[20] and robotic automation that lowers cost for tenants.
Robotics
CloudKitchens builds robots that prepare food[21] and automate the conveyance of food. By 2024, millions of orders of food had been conveyed robotically.[22]
Otter
CloudKitchens created Otter, a software product, which consolidates orders from various platforms (such as Uber Eats, Postmates, Caviar, DoorDash) for kitchens.[23][9] By 2024, Otter grew to process 18% of food delivery in the US.[24]
Over time, the Otter software suite expanded to serve other restaurant use cases. Otter now offers a Point of Sales terminals, Kitchen Display Units, and ordering Kiosks.[25]
Internet Food Court
In April 2020, CloudKitchens launched a short-lived experimental "Internet Food Court" in Koreatown, Los Angeles. After pandemic mitigations were lifted, CloudKitchens began investing in this idea again. It launched a digital food court targetting office workers.[26]
Future Foods
CloudKitchens' branding division is named Future Foods.[27][14] Virtual restaurant brands (or "pseudo-restaurants"[28]) are the opposite of a ghost kitchen: they allow existing restaurants to deliver food with the Future Foods brands.[16] Future Foods handles marketing including food photography.[29]
Many Future Food's brands are provocative or whimsically named, such as
Acquisitions and lobbying
References
External links
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