<div>
  <p>
    The restaurant industry was hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, with a majority of dine-in restaurants forced to shut down as authorities aim to contain the outbreak. As of December 2020, 17% of all US restaurants had permanently closed or announced plans to do so.
  </p>
  <p>
    This has, however, created potential market opportunities for the industry, as cloud kitchens have the potential to help restaurants cater to the growing demand for delivery-only services. Cloud Kitchen operators have seen a spike in funding and new partnerships to expand operations and grow the sector.
  </p>
  <ul>
    <li>
      <p>
        In December 2020, Crave Hospitality raised USD 7.3 million to build teams for its next four cloud kitchens
        .
      </p>
    </li>
    <li>
      <p>
        In November 2020, Reef Kitchen raised USD 700 million to expand the number of the parking lots it uses for its cloud kitchens up to 10,000 up from 4,800
        .
      </p>
    </li>
    <li>
      <p>
        In October 2020, Ordermark raised USD 120 million to assist restaurants transition into online ordering and expand its cloud restaurant portfolio
        .
      </p>
    </li>
    <li>
      <p>
        CloudKitchen Co was reported to have spent USD 130 million over 2019-20 on real estate to expand operations.
      </p>
    </li>
  </ul>
  <p>
  </p>
</div>


COVID19-IMPACT

<h3>Anticipated cloud kitchen boom attracts rush of venture capital firms</h3><p>Cloud kitchens have been a growing trend in the US with a few start-ups in this space obtaining substantial funding to expand business. In 2019 alone, well over USD 800 million was invested in cloud kitchen startups.</p><p>Some of these startups have been backed by former CEOs of major tech startups. Uber  co-founder Travis Kalanick invested heavily in US-based CloudKitchens as well as in London-based Karma Kitchen. A former senior executive of Uber also opened up a cloud kitchen business called All Day Kitchens (formerly Virtual Kitchen Co).</p><p>CloudKitchens is the emerging leader in this space, and it has received the highest funding in the industry, having raised a total of USD 400 million in the past two years. Its investors include the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund. Its association with Kalanick has allowed the company to raise capital quickly and will likely also contribute positively to its expansion and business development as it scales up.</p><p>Another company making progress in the space is Google-backed Kitchen United. The company recently announced a USD 40 million funding round (total funding of USD 50 million), where the funding will be used for an aggressive expansion strategy over the next few years.</p>

<p>A variety of cloud kitchen models are currently under development with the most popular being commissary kitchens, commercial-grade kitchens where foodservice providers can safely and legally prepare, cook, and store food and equipment—without having to own and maintain the facility themselves. Industry incumbents dominate the aggregator managed mode, while single-brand kitchens are less common in part due to their limited potential to reach scale.</p>

<div>
  <p>
    Founded in 2013, REEF Technology (formerly known as ParkJockey Global, a parking lot management company) is mainly involved in providing hardware, software, and management services for parking lots. However, since its inception, the company has expanded to operate businesses such as cloud kitchens, healthcare clinics, logistics, and last mile delivery hubs in empty parking spaces. The company sets up spaces for these businesses using various containers for stores to set up operations, taking advantage of the growing on-demand economy trend where it will house a collection of businesses and services specific to the needs of neighborhoods.
  </p>
  <p>
    Against this backdrop of growth in on-demand food delivery, in 2019, it launched REEF Kitchens, in which parking lots are used for shared kitchen operations. As of November 2020, the company operated in more than 20 markets in North America, with over 100 kitchens consisting of roughly 30 tenants. REEF kitchens are housed in proprietary containers, with each one able to accommodate between one and five restaurant brands or clients. The company refers to its in-garage ghost kitchens as “vessels” and modifies them according to customer requirements. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the company stated that it was performing well owing to its REEF Kitchen business thriving through an increase in on-demand delivery orders. The food offered by REEF’s internal brands comes from US Foods, a food distributor that works with colleges, hotels, and hospitals, apart from being a wholesale supplier to independent restaurants and diners. The company has also partnered with external brands such as Burger Bytes, Della Bowls, and I Heart Mac & Cheese. For delivery, the company partners with brands such as Uber, DoorDash, GetAround, and Nuro.
  </p>
  <p>
    In November 2020, the company received equity funding of USD 700 million, mainly backed by existing investor Softbank and new investor Mubadala Corp. The consortium was further supported through the participation of Oaktree, UBS Asset Management, and venture capital firm Target Global. The funds are expected to be used to scale up operations from 4,800 to 10,000 new locations across the country. Furthermore, REEF launched a USD 300 million fund in partnership with Oaktree. REEF and Oaktree’s infrastructure arm has formed the Neighborhood Property Group to acquire strategic real estate assets.
  </p>
</div>


REEF Technology

<div>
  <p>
    Kitopi is a Dubai-based cloud kitchen platform with over 1,200 employees across the UAE, UK, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait. The company provides kitchen infrastructure support such as equipped kitchens and software for logistics support for restaurants looking to open delivery-only locations. The company has been rapidly expanding its presence globally—specifically in Riyadh, Beirut, London, and New York. However, in June 2020, the company decided to suspend its operations in the US and UK until further notice owing to the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic and decided to shift its focus to expansion in the Middle East. In January 2021, the company opened a new unit in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and revealed further plans for expansion into other Middle Eastern countries in 2021.
  </p>
  <p>
    As of December 2020, Kitopi operated more than 30 cloud kitchens in the Middle East with over 120 restaurant brands—including names such as Operation Falafel, PizzaExpress, Right Bite, and UNDER500. Moreover, the company charges its tenants a fixed onboarding fee and a 10% monthly royalty fee to operate in its facility.
  </p>
  <p>
    In March 2021, the company was rumoured to have plans to raise between USD 150-200 million in new funds for its expansion plans to Southeast Asia, having reached out to the Bank of America to assist in the funding round. If successful, the funding round is likely to increase Kitopi’s valuation to USD 1 billion.
  </p>
  <p>
    It has raised close to USD 90 million in funding, the most recent tranche being a USD 60 million Series B round led by Knollwood and Lumia Capita in November 2019. The funds were initially used to expand its operations in the US, however, they have been redirected toward expansion in the Middle East after the suspension of its US market operations in January 2020. This was deemed to be the highest expansion rate for a company outside of the US. Moreover, in September 2020, Kitopi partnered with Nathan’s Famous Inc (US fast food chain specialising in hot dogs) for the latter to expand its operations to the Middle East.  
    Total Funding: USD 89 million
  </p>
</div>


Kitopi

<div>
  <p>
    CloudKitchens is a kitchen infrastructure company providing support for delivery-only restaurants. The company’s platform offers fully equipped kitchens of various sizes as well as software and logistics support to facilitate online food delivery services. Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Los Angeles, California, it has established kitchen partnerships with popular brands such as The Halal Guys, Fat Sali’s, Sweet Rose, and Tacos 1986. Among the disruptors, the company received the highest funding at USD 400 million, backed by former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and a the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund. The company has bought over 40 properties in nearly two dozen cities for more than USD 130 million. The acquired properties include buildings from Portland, Oregon and Las Vegas, Nevada to Columbus, Ohio, and Nashville, Tennessee.
  </p>
  <p>
    Its holding company - City Storage Systems, targets parking, retail, and industrial spaces to set up the facilities. The company is currently said to have around 27 facilities in the US and is working on another location in Orlando, Florida. The City of Orlando approved a conditional use permit to develop the company’s 41-unit commercial kitchen facility (around 25,000 sq ft). 
  </p>
  <p>
    Unlike other US cloud kitchen brands, the company seems to have ventured into large Asian markets as well as the UK. Many reports suggested that the company has discreetly started to build a team in India, where it is currently operating in stealth mode. It is reported to have started engagements with restaurant chains and real estate developers in Mumbai and begun early discussions with marketplaces, including Swiggy, UberEats, and Zomato.
  </p>
</div>


CloudKitchens

<div>
  <p>
    Karma Kitchen is a UK-based company mainly involved in transforming industrial spaces into commercial kitchens, co-working, and storage spaces. As of December 2020, the company had two facilities located in London and Wood Green. According to the company, it charges roughly USD 50–100 per eight-hour shift.
  </p>
</div>


Karma Kitchen

<div>
  <p>
    Ordermark is a developer of an online ordering platform that consolidates food orders from multiple platforms (such as Uber Eats, DoorDash, etc.) and aggregates them to just one device. It also owns a group of virtual restaurant brands operated by a company called Nextbite. 
  </p>
  <p>
    Nextbite is a restaurant brand curator that also operates a cloud kitchen for virtual restaurants. The company supports virtual restaurant operators (mainly home-based or delivery-only caterers) by offering its own in-house virtual restaurant brands to get their business up and running. Nextbite also provides specific menus that are data-driven based on what consumers in that area demand the most. The company currently has in-house brands such as Monster Mac, Grilled Cheese Society, Mother Clucker, Outlaw Burger, and Firebelly Wings, among others. However, there is also an option for external virtual restaurants to bring in their own brand and operate independently within the cloud kitchen space using the general infrastructure provided, such as utilities, ordering platforms, delivery partners, etc. Moreover, the company relies on unused space in restaurants rather than building new kitchens, whereby it operates as a quasi-franchise model that allows restaurants to use Nextbite’s brand names.
  </p>
  <p>
    Furthermore, its tenancy agreements are monthly, providing the tenant with the option to terminate at any time if the business is not profitable. According to management, since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the company has launched roughly 15 brands and has added more than 1,000 delivery-only restaurants across the US. Furthermore, Nextbite uses Ordermark’s delivery aggregation software technology, allowing the company to aggregate online orders into its platform and aggregate multiple delivery brands into the same device. 
  </p>
  <p>
    In October 2020, Ordermark raised USD 120 million in a Series C funding round, which it plans to use in assisting restaurants transition to online ordering. 
  </p>
</div>


Ordermark

<div>
  <p>
    All Day Kitchens’ primary focus is on building and providing kitchen space for restaurants looking for delivery-only services. Furthermore, the company promotes its kitchen facility based on its ability to use data gathered in the area of on-demand transport infrastructure (i.e. online food delivery services), using it to place its cloud kitchen facilities in areas or neighborhoods where restaurants or other caterers do not have their own facility. In May 2021, the company announced the opening of a new cloud kitchen facility in Chicago partnering with a mix of local restaurants which includes independently run caterers such as ROOH, Demera and fast-casual brands including Devil Dawgs, Cheesie's and uncooked. In addition to the Chicago facility, the company reportedly consisted of another 10 kitchen facilities and 16 restaurant partners mainly located in the San Francisco area (as of May 2021). All Day Kitchens is said to specifically focus on smaller local chains and businesses, with Poki Time, Dosa, and Big Chef Tom’s Belly Burgers featuring as tenants in the Bay Area.
  </p>
  <p>
    A unique aspect of the company’s operational model, compared with peers such as CloudKitchen and Kitchen United, is its hub-and-spoke system, in which ingredients for cooking operations are prepped the day before in a small facility, and then shuttled to the cloud kitchen facility to be used by tenants for cooking and assembly. This process of compartmentalizing the meal prep speeds up kitchen operations for tenants, who have fewer tasks to complete compared to a regular restaurant kitchen. In addition, the company gathers data to analyse the best locations for different cuisines and strategically places clients at these locations.
  </p>
  <p>
    In May 2021, the company raised USD 20 million in a series B funding round led by new investors such as the Founder Fund together with Khosla Ventures, and DoorDash CEO Tony Xu which was announced along with the debut opening of its cloud kitchen facility in Chicago. The funds are set to be used to support the Chicago facility and be utilized for future expansion initiatives in San Francisco, other areas in California and Texas within the next year. 
    
  </p>
</div>


All Day Kitchens

<div>
  <p>
    C3 (Creating Culinary Communities) was founded in April 2020 via a partnership between New York-based hotel and restaurant operator SBE Entertainment Group (former parent company), shopping mall owner Simon Property Group, and hotel partner Accor. The company was created with the vision of building a nationwide network of cloud kitchens and a food hall with a focus on delivery. C3 aims to gain access to the cloud kitchen market by tapping into the culinary resources of SBE’s restaurants and also taking advantage of Accor’s 5,000 hotels and residences. As of December 2020, the company was reported to have 200 kitchen units and eight virtual brands operating under it.
  </p>
  <p>
    The company plans to take advantage of existing kitchen facilities across both SBE and Accor hotels that are underutilized, according to sources. According to SBE, its portfolio includes 36 hotels and more than 200 restaurants and nightclubs, including the SLS, Delano, and Mondrian brands. C3’s near-term goal is to open 200 digital kitchen units by the end of 2020. The initial locations for its cloud facilities were reportedly New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Miami while the company also plans to lease space from existing cloud kitchen operators such as CloudKitchens.
  </p>
  <p>
    In December 2020, the company’s CEO sold 50% of his stake in C3’s former parent company, SBE Entertainment Group, to Accor Hotels. The funds received were announced as being set aside for use in making 20 new leadership hirings and helping the cloud kitchen operator remain on track to grow its digital kitchen base. Moreover, the new leadership team was announced after C3 struck a partnership with online ordering engine Lunchbox to launch a virtual food hall CitizenGo.
  </p>
  <p>
    In March 2021, the company announced a partnership with serviced apartment operator Akara Living to integrate its cloud kitchen into Akara’s Kenect apartments in Nashville and Phoenix.  This is the first time in the US that a real estate company will utilize its property to integrate cloud kitchen operations to provide residents with a new dining option. C3’s kitchens are expected to launch in the summer of 2021 and will be included in all future Kenect properties across the USA. As of March 2021, the Kenect portfolio included nearly 1,000 beds, with another 2,500 beds in the development pipeline. The new venture will provide C3 with the task of overseeing operations and service needs for all Kenect onsite dining venues (i.e., lobby cafés, bars, private pool decks, and delivery to Kenect residents).
  </p>
</div>


Creating Culinary Communities (C3)

<div>
  <p>
    Taster, which currently operates in London, Paris, and Madrid, has three virtual food brands where meals are prepared at its cloud kitchen facility and delivered via third-party platforms Mission Saigon, O Ke Kai, and Out-Fry. Taster tries to predict order rates per day using historical data in order to get the right quantity of raw materials necessary for meal prep on a specific day. Unlike other cloud kitchen operators, Taster does not focus on working with existing restaurants but instead looks to create new restaurant chains and control the menu. As of December 2020, the company reported having three facilities housing 12 kitchens altogether and five restaurant brands operating across these facilities.
  </p>
  <p>
    Taster’s growth has mainly been attributed to the success of its three delivery-only restaurants, each devised in partnership with renowned chefs, one of whom holds two Michelin stars. Moreover, Taster has used technology to rapidly deploy restaurants in new areas, integrate across delivery platforms, and automate the supply chain and billings. This includes an algorithm which accurately predicts the right amount of ingredients needed to be ordered to prepare each of their restaurants’ dishes on a daily basis, drastically reducing food wastage and heightening efficiency.
  </p>
</div>


Taster

<div>
  <p>
    Kitchen United provides kitchen space for restaurants to prepare meals for delivery. In addition to providing kitchen infrastructure, the company provides the necessary software used to accommodate delivery services from aggregators such as DoorDash, GrubHub, and Uber Eats. As of December 2020, the company had five facilities located in Chicago, California, Pasadena, Scottsdale, and Austin, with about 50 kitchen units housing 65–75 restaurants.
  </p>
  <p>
    The company’s medium-term goal is to open 400 locations by 2023–2024 (5,000 kitchen units). In January 2021, the company announced that it would add 16 new kitchen locations by the end of 2021 (expanding to 200 kitchen units), with a focus on doubling down on high-value existing markets such as Chicago and expanding to areas such as the San Francisco Bay Area and New York. The decision to expand operations stemmed from an uptick in demand for food delivery amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The company reported that its volumes increased by nearly 700% YoY in 2020, translating to revenue growth of 200% YoY with same-store sales doubling during the same period. Furthermore, the company added that its independent restaurant brands’ same-store sales grew by 400% YoY in 2020. Kitchen United is reported to be charging its tenants a fixed monthly fee in addition to a 15% slice of revenue for operating in its facilities.
  </p>
  <p>
    Kitchen United's facilities deploy technology to improve operations and are installed with the Internet of Things (IoT), automated conveyor belts (for sorting), and machine learning devices to provide insights on peak ordering times—a feature which was first introduced by Kitchen United but has now been implemented by other players such as Kitopi and CloudKitchens. Kitchen United has established partnerships with reputed fast food restaurants such as The Halal Guys, Dog Hause, and Salad Works. The company states that its partners have primarily benefited from lower labour costs via operating in cloud kitchen spaces.
  </p>
  <p>
    The company claims labor costs are typically reduced to roughly 15–20% of revenue compared to the rate of 30% of revenue provided by operating in a traditional brick-and-mortar restaurant. Moreover, according to company CEO Michael Montagano, independent restaurants coming into Kitchen United’s space take only around 30–90 days to start operations, whereas it may take 12–18 months to set up their own restaurant space. 
  </p>
  <p>
    The cloud kitchen operator has received roughly USD 50 million in total funding (its latest Series B round raised USD 40 million in September 2019) and has been backed by inventors such as GV and Fidelity, and also real estate companies such as Divco West and RXR Realty. However, the company stated that it was not looking to raise more funds and would use the current funding to expand its consumer and restaurant reach across the US.
  </p>
  <p>
    In October 2020, then-CEO Jim Collins was replaced by the company’s CFO Montagano as Collins resigned from the position to pursue personal endeavors. In a statement, Montagano stated that all of Kitchen United’s 51 kitchens across its four locations were occupied, with order volumes up sixfold on a monthly basis since the beginning of 2020. 
  </p>
</div>


Kitchen United

<div>
  <p>
    Sweetheart Kitchen is a Dubai-based delivery-only cloud kitchen which has roughly 30 brands operating in its four cloud kitchen facilities across Dubai and Kuwait, as of December 2020. The cloud kitchen is a private label multi-brand which creates all of the brands within its portfolio (bySWHK).  Furthermore, it does not partner with third-party restaurants looking to outsource their delivery volume. However, the company has linked up with third-party aggregators such as Talabat, Zomato, and Carriage for delivery.
  </p>
  <p>
    The company raised USD 17.7 million in funding in October 2020 in order to expand its operations, with the potential launch of five new brands and opening of 19 new units across the UAE and Kuwait set for early 2021, followed by a planned expansion into Saudi Arabia afterwards. The round was led by Sweetheart Kitchen CEO Peter Schatzberg. To date, the company has received total funding of USD 42.2 million. However, the company has not revealed any plans to expand to the US or European markets.
  </p>
</div>


Sweetheart Kitchen

<div>
  <p>
    Keatz operates 10 cloud kitchens across Europe, most notably in the cities of Amsterdam, Madrid, Barcelona, and Munich which, as of January 2021, housed roughly eight restaurants. The company is focusing exclusively on food “made for delivery”, including by designing dishes that can withstand a minimum of a 15-minute journey. It also sells takeout food better suited for delivery. The startup has a portfolio of eight delivery-only food brands, which are all prepared in the same shared kitchens. The company's kitchens are roughly 100-200 sq ft and serve a delivery radius of one mile with delivery platforms such as Deliveroo, UberEats, Glovo, JustEat, Delivery Hero, and TakeAway. In March 2019 the company raised roughly USD 14 million in funding in order to expand its cloud kitchen operations across Europe.
  </p>
</div>


Keatz

<div>
  <p>
    Zuul is a developer of kitchen spaces for restaurants looking to expand their delivery services. The company's service offers a network of delivery-only smart kitchens enabling restaurants to increase their scale. Zuul kitchens fall into two categories: a single kitchen space which can be shared by restaurants at different times and a space dedicated to the use of a single restaurant. The company does not publicly disclose its pricing details, however, tenants are said to pay a monthly membership fee to use its facilities. Furthermore, Zuul revealed that it began offering one-year memberships but stated that initial tenants asked for longer agreements, which prompted the company to consider extending the term of a contract beyond a year. As of December 2020, the company reported having one facility in New York which housed five kitchen units operating five brands.
  </p>
  <p>
    In September 2020, the company announced the launch of its virtual food hall “Zuul Market”. The model is a hybrid between an online marketplace and delivery platform. This is where the marketplace sells items from restaurants that are currently tenants of Zuul’s cloud kitchen facility. The goal behind the new model is to provide a better means of delivery where food prepared by multiple restaurants is taken to one location for distribution. Moreover, the company has partnered with major property developers such as Silverstein Properties and Broad Street Development in order to utilise their office buildings and residential properties for distribution.
  </p>
  <p>
    In February 2021, the company entered the restaurant management technology space by launching ZuulOS, a software platform developed to assist cloud kitchen operators manage kitchen operations (i.e. orders, deliveries, supply sourcing etc.) by managing and sorting orders and deliveries with multiple third party aggregators as well as managing promotional activities and discounts. Zuul also announced that it has come into a partnership with Aurify Brands (restaurant brand development company) to launch a multi-brand cloud kitchen facility out of Aurify’s New York City location.
  </p>
  <p>
    The company acquired Ontray, an online food ordering platform, in January 2020 for an undisclosed fee. The strategy behind the move was to build an online ordering platform that could help restaurant operators independently receive and fulfill delivery orders instead of counting on third-party aggregators. Zuul stated that by building its own in-house ordering platform for direct delivery orders, it could enable members to generate more orders at a higher profit margin by excluding the use of aggregators such as Uber Eats and DoorDash.
  </p>
</div>


Zuul

<div>
  <p>
    Epic Kitchens is a multi-brand cloud kitchen. The company has roughly eight brands utilising its facility, among which are FreshBeets, Fat Brands, Pokeworks, Butterfry Kitchen, and 800 Degrees. Epic Kitchen provides its tenants with an online ordering platform via its website and a kitchen space to work on. Furthermore, Epic Kitchen allows restaurants operating in its facility to retain brand control while its cloud kitchen handles the operational and marketing aspects of the business. Furthermore, brands also have access to third-party delivery partners including DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub, Caviar, and Postmates.
  </p>
  <p>
    In terms of its future plans, the company is looking to include 20 cloud kitchen locations for tenant Fat Brands throughout Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, and New York over 2021–22. As of December 2020, the company possessed just one facility in Chicago which housed roughly nine tenants. The company reported that it planned to add a further 20 locations to its portfolio from 2021–22.
  </p>
</div>


Epic Kitchens

<div>
  <p>
    Nimbus Kitchens is a New York-based cloud kitchen operator providing commercial kitchen spaces and solutions to small scale restaurants looking to focus on delivery-only demand. 
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
  <p>
    The facility includes 10 individual commercial kitchens for rent on an hourly, monthly, or yearly-basis as well as shared work space for outsiders or restaurant members. According to reports, rates on an hourly basis range from USD 20 for a prep-only kitchen to USD 35 per hour for the shift-kitchens and can be rented out for a minimum of 20-hours per month. Businesses can use Nimbus’s online dashboard to book kitchen time, rent storage space, pay invoices, and store permit and insurance information, according to the company.
  </p>
  <p>
    The company currently has one New York based pizza company operating in its facility full time while one space is shared by a bakery, lunch catering company, and a delivery restaurant throughout the day. Other Nimbus members include Quinn, a modern on-demand meal plan delivery service; and Alchemista, a bespoke food-and-beverage service.
  </p>
  <p>
    The founders of the company have stated that it is looking to open at least 10 facilities in the New York Area over 2021-23  with a long term vision of opening 100 facilities by 2030 in major metropolitan markets. 
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
</div>


Nimbus Kitchens

<div>
  <p>
    JustKitchen is a cloud kitchen incorporated in Canada with operations starting in Taiwan in 2019, where is runs a hub-and-spoke model where meals are prepared in a “hub” kitchen (located in the city of Neihu) before being sent to a small unit, a “spoke”, for final assembly, and are thereafter picked up by delivery partners such as Uber Eats.
  </p>
  <p>
    In May 2021, the company announced plans to open its first cloud kitchen facility in Hong Kong. The facility, situated in the Eastern District, is to open by mid-June 2021. The company stated that it aims to open 6-8 cloud kitchen locations in Hong Kong. The  company’s strategy to enter the market includes deploying a decentralized and just-in-time operating model. Moreover, with the delivery of alcohol permitted in Hong Kong, the company is reported to be developing bundled offers for clients that include food and an alcoholic beverage.  For delivery, the company is said to have entered into an agreement with Foodpanda and Uber Eats.
  </p>
  <p>
    The company is looking to expand into three more markets, including Singapore, the Phillipines and the US in 2021.
  </p>
  <p>
    The company currently has 14 independent brands under its cloud kitchen wing, including Smith & Wollensky and TGI Fridays, operating under licensing agreements. Prior to partnering with these restaurants and brands, JustKitchens designs a menu specifically for takeout and delivery. Once the designed menu is launched, the meals are prepared by JustKitchen instead of the brands, which are in turn paid royalties. In this sense, the company’s model can be considered unique.
  </p>
  <p>
    In addition to the licensing model, the company is also looking to develop its own brands and franchise them to other home cooks or independent restaurants. Furthermore, the company has established its own R&D facility to use data analytics to provide restaurants with several options for menu expansion based on customer data.
  </p>
  <p>
    In April 2021, the company commenced trading on Toronto’s TSX Venture Exchange with a direct listing of its common shares, having raised USD 8 million at a valuation of roughly USD 30 million. The company also reported that it plans to list its common shares on the OTCQB exchange in the US and the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in Germany. The IPO round was led by returning investor SparkLabs Taipei. Majority of the stake in JustKitchen’s is owned by its executives, board directors, and employees. 
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
</div>


JustKitchen

<div>
  <p>
    
    The Local Culinary was established in Miami in May 2019 as a cloud kitchen, housing roughly 20 kitchen units at eight  locations, as of October 2020. The company has partnered with aggregators such as Uber Eats Postmates, GrubHub, and DoorDash for delivery.
  </p>
  <p>
    In June 2020, the company adopted a franchising model, being the first cloud kitchen operator in the space to bring 50 distinctive brands to the existing space of independent restaurant owners seeking a new way to expand revenue streams, and optimize their existing kitchen space. The model allows for independent restaurants to incorporate or replicate concepts offered by The Local Culinary’s brand into their existing kitchen space and operation. This will add in to or expand the independent restaurant’s menu offerings, allowing them to increase their customer base. According to the company, the onboarding process for the franchising program takes roughly 10–20 days and includes training of the franchisee’s team, the setting up of their kitchen (if required), provision of tablets with the software application for orders, and organizing packaging. Franchisees are said to pay an initial one-off USD 50,000 to join the program plus a monthly fee of 7% of the gross revenue the franchisee obtains from The Local Culinary’s brands.
  </p>
  <p>
    However, in November 2020, the company decided to waive its initial franchise fee to support independent restaurant brands that have been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and also attract smaller players. Moreover, the company stated that it had been able to sign five new franchise agreements across three states from October–November 2020.
  </p>
  <p>
    The company is further expanding across the US and according to its founder, along with this Miami facility, it has four locations in Florida, three in San Francisco, and a few more in Louisiana which are a mix of its own commissary and franchising spaces. Moreover, the company is also looking to open a lease contract in three locations in New York and two in Chicago.
  </p>
</div>


The Local Culinary

<div>
  <p>
    Garrett’s is a family owned traditional dine-in restaurant based in Arizona. However, amidst the COVID pandemic its operations were forced to shut down in March 2020. This caused its owner, Michael Lopuszynski (who bought the restaurant in the summer of 2018) to look at other avenues of revenue, when it came across Nextbite, a two year old cloud restaurant/ kitchen incubator. The two partnered in September 2020, to convert Garrett’s dine in restaurant into a cloud kitchen and has now a dozen brands operating under them such as  HotBox by Wiz, CraveBurger, Firebelly Wings, Mother Clucker and The Big Melt. Deliveries to customers are undertaken via third party delivery apps. 
  </p>
  <p>
    As per its owner, the kitchen only made USD 22 in sales on its first day with sales increasing every day after by around USD 60, and reaching up to USD 444 in sales for HotBox and Mother Cluckers. He expects the company to reach sales of USD 1,000 per day in the near future. Lopuszynsk further mentioned that he had stop new orders from coming in as they had run out of capacity and resources owing to the higher than expected order volumes. This has caused the company to add further staff to its facility. 
  </p>
  <p>
    Garrett’s and Nextbite are responsible for providing its tenants with specific recipes and the necessary ingredients - with both of them splitting the profits. Garrett’s was the first restaurant in Arizona to join Nextbite’s virtual restaurant programme which is popular among cities in  Los Angeles, San Diego, Pittsburgh, Chicago and Denver.
  </p>
</div>


Garrett’s Family Steakhouse

<div>
  <p>
    Virtual Dining Concepts (VDC) is a provider of cloud kitchen services with a focus on foodservice brands built around celebrity endorsements. The company claims to be the leader in celebrity restaurant brands, operating virtual kitchens for brands including Tyga’s Chicken Bites (associated with the rapper Tyga), MrBeast Burger (associated with top-earning YouTube star MrBeast), and Mariah’s Cookies (associated with the singer Mariah Carey), among others.
  </p>
  <p>
    VDC was co-founded by the father-and-son duo of Robert and Robbie Earl. Robert is the former CEO of Hard Rock Cafe and the founder and chairman of Planet Hollywood restaurant brands while his son Robbie manages talent partnerships including relationships with the celebrities who lend their names to VDC restaurant brands. 
  </p>
</div>


Virtual Dining Concepts

Commissary Kitchens

Independently owned and operated facilities with kitchen space rented out to different restaurant brands or home caterers.  Depending on the cloud kitchen operator, the facility may or may not have a storefront which is available for customers to pick up orders themselves. 

<div>
  <p>
    The Crave Hospitality Group was initially known for its food delivery company (“Crave Delivery”), before it decided to change its business model by launching into cloud kitchens (“Crave Collective”) in November 2020. Its current cloud kitchen facility, set up in Idaho, provides kitchen space for independent restaurant brands and offers tenants marketing, ordering, and delivery software. The new facility is a 15,000-square-foot facility which includes kitchen space for 16 brands (with signed tenancy agreements), with each unit having a three-compartment sink, hand sink, and stainless steel workstations. Moreover, the unit also includes two drive-throughs for customers to pick up orders. A few of the brands planning to set up operations in the facility are Tony G’s, Elliott’s Oyster House, and Rock House Sliders. Unlike other cloud operations, crave employs its own staff to undertake delivery. Furthermore, the company has its own proprietary technology which manages online orders while the facility in Idaho also features a pick-up area for customers.
  </p>
  <p>
    In December 2020, the company raised USD 7.3 million in seed funding led by venture capital firm StageDotO in participation with Capital Eleven and a few undisclosed individual investors. The company is looking to use the funds for the expansion of its cloud kitchen operations in 2021, with it set to open four Crave Collective facilities. Moreover, at the fundraising announcement, the company stated that it was looking to open four facilities in 2021 and a further 10 in 2022 in cities such as Utah’s Salt Lake City and Provo, and Arizona’s Mesa and Chandler.
  </p>
  <p>
    According to reports, tenants are estimated to be paying a monthly fee of roughly USD 6,000 which includes expenses for gas, electricity, and water. In addition to this, Crave collects a 20% cut of each order from tenants for marketing and delivery. Of the 16 restaurants signed up, eight are reported to have inked a three-year agreement, according to Crave founder Scott Howard.
  </p>
</div>


Crave Hospitality Group

<div>
  <p>
    Mealco is a cloud kitchen infrastructure provider and brand curator based in New York. The company offers its kitchen infrastructure to restaurants looking to expand operations for delivery-only meals. In general, the process of getting a new restaurant up and running takes roughly 6-8 weeks. Furthermore, Mealco also undertakes meal prep tasks using its own staff so that the restaurant can focus on expanding its menu concepts. Additionally, the company provides support concerning branding and marketing activities and gives restaurant brands access to a dashboard with real-time data regarding menu performance and customer feedback.
  </p>
  <p>
    As of January 2021, the company is reported to have launched two restaurants that operate in its New York facility delivering to Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. As per the management, there were around 50 brands on the waitlist to join.
  </p>
  <p>
    In January 2021, the company raised USD 7 million in a seed funding round and is looking to use the funds to expand operations throughout New York and surrounding areas during the year, moving to new cities in 2022.
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
</div>


Mealco

<div>
  <p>
    Ghost Kitchen is a cloud kitchen operator who provides culinary space and equipment to restaurants. In February 2021, the company opened its first facility in Charleston, South Carolina, a 5,000 square foot commercial space for restaurateurs, food trucks, and packaged goods companies.The facility is said to consist of 10 main cooking stations with ovens, grills, fryers, and other gear. The company also provides parking space for up to 20 food trucks. The company charges USD 30 per 10 hours shifts  while virtual restaurants are charged USD 1,500 per month for 120 hours per month.
  </p>
</div>


Ghost Kitchen

<div>
  <p>
    Kitchen Republic offers home-based food startup entrepreneurs a facility where they can scale up operations. The company has two facilities, with the newer site being set up in Amsterdam within a renovated warehouse, and slated to offer professional kitchens as well as work and event space across the building’s 2,500 square meters. According to the company’s website, charges for the facility range from USD 750–1,500 per month based on the space and utilities provided. 
  </p>
</div>


Kitchen Republic

<div>
  <p>
    Franchise Creator Inc is a business coaching and consulting firm which assists businesses expand operations via a franchising program. In June 2020, the company opened up Combo Kitchen, a general commissary-style cloud kitchen with a franchise business model. Combo Kitchen acquired its first location in Miami in September 2020 and launched with brands such as Taco Rico and Poke Mahi with a plan to introduce more concepts over the coming months.  Franchise Creator has also been striking deals to incorporate more restaurants into its kitchen facility and also franchise them out to other independent restaurants – a similar model to its Miami-based neighbor, The Local Culinary. 
    The franchise model allows independent restaurants to act as franchisees for brands such as Taco Rico and Poke Mahi and expand their menu offerings. In return, Combo Kitchen charges these restaurants a royalty fee, shared between the company and the restaurant brand owners. 
    In addition to the cloud kitchen facility in Miami, the company is running a franchise program in three of its franchise brand kitchens in Miami (Nantucket Shrimp Shack, 109 Burger Joint, and King of Racks – Food Truck). In this program the company provides independent restaurants with the ability to expand operations and an increased brand awareness via marketing promotions. 
    The company has partnered with all the major third-party online food delivery aggregators such as UberEats, GrubHub, and DoorDash. 
  </p>
</div>


Franchise Creator Inc

<div>
  <p>
    Amped Kitchens (formerly known as L.A. Prep) provides ready-to-occupy private kitchen spaces to small food manufacturers in Los Angeles. Roughly 10–15% of the company’s tenants are from restaurants utilising its cloud kitchen facilities for delivery. The company is reported to have three facilities which house roughly 170 kitchen units and 26 restaurants. Operating at an entry level with basic space and kitchen utensils, Amped Kitchens is reportedly charging its tenants USD 1,850 per month.
  </p>
  <p>
    The company, which launched in late 2019, is also planning to replicate its LA success in Chicago as a multi-tenant premium food production facility in the Galewood neighborhood. This is being done by the company looking to convert a former television factory into a complex which could house up to 64 kitchen spaces which is estimated to be a USD 30 million investment. However, the company is yet to reveal more details as to when it plans to open the facility.
  </p>
</div>


Amped Kitchens

<div>
  <p>
    Fulton Kitchens is a cloud kitchen operator housing 20 kitchens to be rented in a 11,000 square foot facility. Unlike other cloud kitchen operators such as Kitchen United, Fulton has no support personnel for services such as cleaning up and raw material ordering. 
  </p>
  <p>
    Of the space rented out, 20% is estimated to be for cloud kitchens while the remainder caters to startups in the consumer packaged goods space. The company’s Hollywood space includes  units which have hoods, prep tables and sinks, a grease interceptor, heavy power and floor sinks as well as a walk-in cooler and freezer access. 
  </p>
</div>


Fulton Kitchens

<div>
  <p>
    Wired Kitchens is a California-based cloud kitchen operator offering commercial kitchen facilities to independent restaurant brands. The company is yet to start operations and plans to open its first facility in Miami in March 2021. The Miami facility reportedly includes up to 42 kitchens ranging from 240 to 300 square feet each. The company is also setting up a facility in Texas which will include 35 kitchen units with plans to open more facilities in Seattle and Los Angeles. In addition to providing the kitchen space, Wired Kitchens offers its tenants dry, cold, and frozen storage space, equipment leasing, and support in expanding menu offerings or launching new brands.
  </p>
</div>


Wired Kitchens 

Franchise Model

A cloud kitchen operator who provides kitchen facilities to independent restaurants and also offers its own virtual restaurant brands to tenants. Independent restaurants have the option to either operate in the franchiser’s cloud kitchen space or use their own kitchen.  Franchising programs generally offer a range of different menus and training programs in addition to the required infrastructure to set up the online ordering platform.  

<div>
  <p>
    Kitchen Ventures is a cloud kitchen operator based in London. The company has its own cloud kitchen facility which houses five of its own virtual brands. In January 2021, the company received USD 2 million in funding to expand its cloud kitchen network to select international markets. Founder Jonny Boud stated that they would also use the funds to grow its own virtual brand concept through licensing and offering a franchise program to independent restaurants who may want to use their under-utilized kitchen space to expand their menu offerings. The company’s facility reportedly houses brands such as Giz 'N' Greens Pizza Pies, Tacos El Ray, Farmbird, and Local Greens among others. Kitchen Ventures has partnered with third party aggregators such as Deliveroo and Uber Eats while also allowing customers to place orders on the company’s own website. 
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
</div>


Kitchen Ventures

<div>
  <p>
    Founded in 2015, Butler Hospitality is an on-demand platform providing hotel room service. The company delivers food to any hotel room and specializes in offering offsite room service for limited-service hotels. The startup essentially occupies a hotel kitchen in one property, which it uses to provide meal delivery services to in-house guests in the same property and nearby hotels (within 30 minutes). After taking over the hotel kitchen, Butler Hospitality handles everything from menu design and meal preparation to billing. As of 2020, the company reported operating out of five hotel kitchens in New York. Moreover, Butler is cited as having a 10% revenue sharing agreement with its tenants for use of its facilities.
  </p>
  <p>
    In July 2020, the company raised USD 15 million in Series A funding, which will be used for expansion purposes, especially to areas outside New York, Chicago, Miami, and Washington. Consequently, the company announced its expansion into Chicago in October 2020, opening its first cloud kitchen inside The Godfrey Hotel, a unit of the Oxford Hotels & Resorts Group. The decision to move into Chicago came after the company had been operating in New York for five years, working with more than 120 hotels and servicing 35,000 hotel rooms. Furthermore, the company stated that it was on track to open additional hubs later in the year in Chicago, along with new operations in Miami and Washington DC. 
  </p>
</div>


Butler Hospitality

Single Brand Kitchens

Similar to a commissary kitchen, however, the facility is only used by a single restaurant brand—usually sharing an owner with the kitchen facility.  

Aggregator Managed Kitchens

Cloud kitchens set up by online delivery and third party aggregator companies. In general, these have no storefront for customer pick up. 

Disruptor Funding History

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

Defining the future of the restaurant business.

Cloud Kitchens

<h3>Traditional restaurants, cafes and aggregators are watching the cloud kitchen space</h3><p>The cloud kitchen space is now being explored by different types of players in the restaurant delivery supply chain. These include restaurants, startups and third-party delivery platforms that have a backward- or forward-integration strategy to enter the market. Third-party aggregators have now started to backward integrate into the restaurant delivery value chain and are providing cloud kitchen services for existing restaurants on their platforms, as well as services for original brands. These include brands such as GrubHub, DoorDash, and Deliveroo, while businesses such as Mcdonald’s’’ have opened up their own cloud kitchen facilities to cater to growing on-demand delivery in the UK.</p>

<div>
  <p>
    DoorDash announced the launch of its cloud kitchen service DoorDash Kitchens, the first of which will be used by a list of restaurants including, Rooster & Rice, Humphry Slocombe and The Halal Guys. Each kitchen at the facility is staffed by the kitchen brand itself while DoorDash is responsible for providing janitorial services, delivery, and the handoff of meals for pick up by customers.
  </p>
  <p>
    The launch of DoorDash’s cloud kitchen came after two years of the company experimenting with a single commissary kitchen. Along its launch of its first kitchen in October 2019 in California, the company offered its kitchen partners 0% delivery fees until the end of 2019, which triggered restaurants such as Chick-fil-A to join DoorDash’s cloud kitchen facility. 
  </p>
  <p>
    The company stated that the new facility is mainly focussed on helping local restaurants expand off-premise sales, especially in the Silicon Valley region without opening a physical restaurant in the pricey region. It further went on to note that from its kitchen partners few of them opt for delivery only, while others use it for pick up and delivery.
  </p>
  <p>
    While the company’s new business vertical head, Fuad Hannon mentioned that the kitchen is not looking to open a second facility in the near future, a feasibility study on the Northern California area is being carried out to explore potential opportunities for a possible second facility.
  </p>
</div>


DoorDash Kitchens

<div>
  <p>
    In 2019, GrubHub partnered with lifestyle food brand Bon Appetit to launch a cloud kitchen concept called Bon Appetit, Delivered. At launch, the concept was only available in Chicago through GrubHubs mobile app. The restaurant is reported to offer customers Bon Appetit's most popular dishes from the pages of its magazine, website and Instagram feeds. All recipes are developed by the brand's famed Test Kitchen editors and are produced in collaboration with Lettuce Entertain You (LEYE; a multi-concept restaurant group based in Chicago). 
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
</div>


GrubHub

<div>
  <p>
    UK-based food delivery giant Deliveroo, which counts Amazon as a major investor, recently revealed that it now claims 2,000 virtual restaurant brands in the UK alone—a 150% YoY increase from 2018. Deliveroo has been operating delivery-only kitchens called “editions” since 2017, set up near areas that are likely to have high demand (such as office spaces, busy residential neighborhoods) for food delivery, with Deliveroo offering data to help identify specific culinary preferences. In London, these areas include Camberwell, Battersea, Dulwich and Canary Wharf. The company had reported to launch the same service in Singapore, Dubai and Australia.
  </p>
</div>


Deliveroo

<div>
  <p>
    Kroger is a grocery retailer with store formats that include grocery and multi-department stores, convenience stores, and mall jewelry stores. In December 2019, the company launched Kroger Delivery Kitchen in partnership with ClusterTruck, a software platform which powers delivery-only kitchens. The new unit will deliver meals on-demand without service or delivery fees. Initially, the unit is expected to run four kitchens in Indianapolis and Ohio. ClusterTruck has been operating cloud kitchens prior to the partnership where it prepared meals and delivered them through its own fleet. The company has raised USD 10 million in funding.
  </p>
  <p>
    In October 2020, the company extended its partnership with ClusterTruck by opening two new on-premise cloud kitchens, located in Indiana and Ohio. The decision to open two new facilities comes after overall digital sales more than doubled in 2Q2020. Each of the new cloud kitchen facilities are reported to be roughly 1,000 square feet with the menus expected to have over 80 meals.
  </p>
</div>


Kroger

<div>
  <p>
    Grab, one of South East Asia’s largest ride hailing companies, announced the opening of its first Cloud Kitchen facility in 2018 in Indonesia (Jakarta). The unit goes with the name of GrabKitchens. Similar to a general cloud kitchen operator, it offers kitchen partners a platform to introduce food concepts and deliver them to customers. In addition to providing a space for kitchens, the company takes care of utility management within the facility and marketing support within the app. Post its launch in Indonesia, the company expanded to other South East Asian countries such as Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Philippines over 2018-19.
  </p>
  <p>
    In January 2020, the company announced the opening of its 56th cloud kitchen and first in Singapore. The Hillview facility consists of roughly 20 brands which includes three virtual restaurants (delivery only restaurants). In October 2020, the company opened its second cloud kitchen in Singapore after seeing strong demand in the country since its launch in January; total order volumes had doubled and it had been operating at full occupancy with over 20 brands as of 1 October 2020. The second facility is reported to be housing 15 brands in a  2,971 sq ft space consisting of eight kitchens and a dine-in area.
  </p>
</div>


Grab

In-house Development

Partnership

Investment

The Incumbents

Kitopi is a Dubai-based cloud kitchen platform with over 1,200 employees across the UAE, UK, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait. The company provides kitchen infrastructure support such as equipped kitchens and software for logistics support for restaurants looking to open delivery-only locations. The company has been rapidly expanding its presence globally—specifically in Riyadh, Beirut, London, and New York. However, in June 2020, the company decided to suspend its operations in the US and UK until further notice owing to the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic and decided to shift its focus to expansion in the Middle East. In January 2021, the company opened a new unit in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and revealed further plans for expansion into other Middle Eastern countries in 2021.
  
  
    As of December 2020, Kitopi operated more than 30 cloud kitchens in the Middle East with over 120 restaurant brands—including names such as Operation Falafel, PizzaExpress, Right Bite, and UNDER500. Moreover, the company charges its tenants a fixed onboarding fee and a 10% monthly royalty fee to operate in its facility.
  
  
    In March 2021, the company was rumoured to have plans to raise between USD 150-200 million in new funds for its expansion plans to Southeast Asia, having reached out to the Bank of America to assist in the funding round. If successful, the funding round is likely to increase Kitopi’s valuation to USD 1 billion.
  
  
    It has raised close to USD 90 million in funding, the most recent tranche being a USD 60 million Series B round led by Knollwood and Lumia Capita in November 2019. The funds were initially used to expand its operations in the US, however, they have been redirected toward expansion in the Middle East after the suspension of its US market operations in January 2020. This was deemed to be the highest expansion rate for a company outside of the US. Moreover, in September 2020, Kitopi partnered with Nathan’s Famous Inc (US fast food chain specialising in hot dogs) for the latter to expand its operations to the Middle East.  
    Total Funding: USD 89 million

CloudKitchens is a kitchen infrastructure company providing support for delivery-only restaurants. The company’s platform offers fully equipped kitchens of various sizes as well as software and logistics support to facilitate online food delivery services. Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Los Angeles, California, it has established kitchen partnerships with popular brands such as The Halal Guys, Fat Sali’s, Sweet Rose, and Tacos 1986. Among the disruptors, the company received the highest funding at USD 400 million, backed by former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and a the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund. The company has bought over 40 properties in nearly two dozen cities for more than USD 130 million. The acquired properties include buildings from Portland, Oregon and Las Vegas, Nevada to Columbus, Ohio, and Nashville, Tennessee.
  
  
    Its holding company - City Storage Systems, targets parking, retail, and industrial spaces to set up the facilities. The company is currently said to have around 27 facilities in the US and is working on another location in Orlando, Florida. The City of Orlando approved a conditional use permit to develop the company’s 41-unit commercial kitchen facility (around 25,000 sq ft). 
  
  
    Unlike other US cloud kitchen brands, the company seems to have ventured into large Asian markets as well as the UK. Many reports suggested that the company has discreetly started to build a team in India, where it is currently operating in stealth mode. It is reported to have started engagements with restaurant chains and real estate developers in Mumbai and begun early discussions with marketplaces, including Swiggy, UberEats, and Zomato.

Karma Kitchen is a UK-based company mainly involved in transforming industrial spaces into commercial kitchens, co-working, and storage spaces. As of December 2020, the company had two facilities located in London and Wood Green. According to the company, it charges roughly USD 50–100 per eight-hour shift.

All Day Kitchens’ primary focus is on building and providing kitchen space for restaurants looking for delivery-only services. Furthermore, the company promotes its kitchen facility based on its ability to use data gathered in the area of on-demand transport infrastructure (i.e. online food delivery services), using it to place its cloud kitchen facilities in areas or neighborhoods where restaurants or other caterers do not have their own facility. In May 2021, the company announced the opening of a new cloud kitchen facility in Chicago partnering with a mix of local restaurants which includes independently run caterers such as ROOH, Demera and fast-casual brands including Devil Dawgs, Cheesie's and uncooked. In addition to the Chicago facility, the company reportedly consisted of another 10 kitchen facilities and 16 restaurant partners mainly located in the San Francisco area (as of May 2021). All Day Kitchens is said to specifically focus on smaller local chains and businesses, with Poki Time, Dosa, and Big Chef Tom’s Belly Burgers featuring as tenants in the Bay Area.
  
  
    A unique aspect of the company’s operational model, compared with peers such as CloudKitchen and Kitchen United, is its hub-and-spoke system, in which ingredients for cooking operations are prepped the day before in a small facility, and then shuttled to the cloud kitchen facility to be used by tenants for cooking and assembly. This process of compartmentalizing the meal prep speeds up kitchen operations for tenants, who have fewer tasks to complete compared to a regular restaurant kitchen. In addition, the company gathers data to analyse the best locations for different cuisines and strategically places clients at these locations.
  
  
    In May 2021, the company raised USD 20 million in a series B funding round led by new investors such as the Founder Fund together with Khosla Ventures, and DoorDash CEO Tony Xu which was announced along with the debut opening of its cloud kitchen facility in Chicago. The funds are set to be used to support the Chicago facility and be utilized for future expansion initiatives in San Francisco, other areas in California and Texas within the next year.

C3 (Creating Culinary Communities) was founded in April 2020 via a partnership between New York-based hotel and restaurant operator SBE Entertainment Group (former parent company), shopping mall owner Simon Property Group, and hotel partner Accor. The company was created with the vision of building a nationwide network of cloud kitchens and a food hall with a focus on delivery. C3 aims to gain access to the cloud kitchen market by tapping into the culinary resources of SBE’s restaurants and also taking advantage of Accor’s 5,000 hotels and residences. As of December 2020, the company was reported to have 200 kitchen units and eight virtual brands operating under it.
  
  
    The company plans to take advantage of existing kitchen facilities across both SBE and Accor hotels that are underutilized, according to sources. According to SBE, its portfolio includes 36 hotels and more than 200 restaurants and nightclubs, including the SLS, Delano, and Mondrian brands. C3’s near-term goal is to open 200 digital kitchen units by the end of 2020. The initial locations for its cloud facilities were reportedly New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Miami while the company also plans to lease space from existing cloud kitchen operators such as CloudKitchens.
  
  
    In December 2020, the company’s CEO sold 50% of his stake in C3’s former parent company, SBE Entertainment Group, to Accor Hotels. The funds received were announced as being set aside for use in making 20 new leadership hirings and helping the cloud kitchen operator remain on track to grow its digital kitchen base. Moreover, the new leadership team was announced after C3 struck a partnership with online ordering engine Lunchbox to launch a virtual food hall CitizenGo.
  
  
    In March 2021, the company announced a partnership with serviced apartment operator Akara Living to integrate its cloud kitchen into Akara’s Kenect apartments in Nashville and Phoenix.  This is the first time in the US that a real estate company will utilize its property to integrate cloud kitchen operations to provide residents with a new dining option. C3’s kitchens are expected to launch in the summer of 2021 and will be included in all future Kenect properties across the USA. As of March 2021, the Kenect portfolio included nearly 1,000 beds, with another 2,500 beds in the development pipeline. The new venture will provide C3 with the task of overseeing operations and service needs for all Kenect onsite dining venues (i.e., lobby cafés, bars, private pool decks, and delivery to Kenect residents).

Taster, which currently operates in London, Paris, and Madrid, has three virtual food brands where meals are prepared at its cloud kitchen facility and delivered via third-party platforms Mission Saigon, O Ke Kai, and Out-Fry. Taster tries to predict order rates per day using historical data in order to get the right quantity of raw materials necessary for meal prep on a specific day. Unlike other cloud kitchen operators, Taster does not focus on working with existing restaurants but instead looks to create new restaurant chains and control the menu. As of December 2020, the company reported having three facilities housing 12 kitchens altogether and five restaurant brands operating across these facilities.
  
  
    Taster’s growth has mainly been attributed to the success of its three delivery-only restaurants, each devised in partnership with renowned chefs, one of whom holds two Michelin stars. Moreover, Taster has used technology to rapidly deploy restaurants in new areas, integrate across delivery platforms, and automate the supply chain and billings. This includes an algorithm which accurately predicts the right amount of ingredients needed to be ordered to prepare each of their restaurants’ dishes on a daily basis, drastically reducing food wastage and heightening efficiency.

Kitchen United provides kitchen space for restaurants to prepare meals for delivery. In addition to providing kitchen infrastructure, the company provides the necessary software used to accommodate delivery services from aggregators such as DoorDash, GrubHub, and Uber Eats. As of December 2020, the company had five facilities located in Chicago, California, Pasadena, Scottsdale, and Austin, with about 50 kitchen units housing 65–75 restaurants.
  
  
    The company’s medium-term goal is to open 400 locations by 2023–2024 (5,000 kitchen units). In January 2021, the company announced that it would add 16 new kitchen locations by the end of 2021 (expanding to 200 kitchen units), with a focus on doubling down on high-value existing markets such as Chicago and expanding to areas such as the San Francisco Bay Area and New York. The decision to expand operations stemmed from an uptick in demand for food delivery amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The company reported that its volumes increased by nearly 700% YoY in 2020, translating to revenue growth of 200% YoY with same-store sales doubling during the same period. Furthermore, the company added that its independent restaurant brands’ same-store sales grew by 400% YoY in 2020. Kitchen United is reported to be charging its tenants a fixed monthly fee in addition to a 15% slice of revenue for operating in its facilities.
  
  
    Kitchen United's facilities deploy technology to improve operations and are installed with the Internet of Things (IoT), automated conveyor belts (for sorting), and machine learning devices to provide insights on peak ordering times—a feature which was first introduced by Kitchen United but has now been implemented by other players such as Kitopi and CloudKitchens. Kitchen United has established partnerships with reputed fast food restaurants such as The Halal Guys, Dog Hause, and Salad Works. The company states that its partners have primarily benefited from lower labour costs via operating in cloud kitchen spaces.
  
  
    The company claims labor costs are typically reduced to roughly 15–20% of revenue compared to the rate of 30% of revenue provided by operating in a traditional brick-and-mortar restaurant. Moreover, according to company CEO Michael Montagano, independent restaurants coming into Kitchen United’s space take only around 30–90 days to start operations, whereas it may take 12–18 months to set up their own restaurant space. 
  
  
    The cloud kitchen operator has received roughly USD 50 million in total funding (its latest Series B round raised USD 40 million in September 2019) and has been backed by inventors such as GV and Fidelity, and also real estate companies such as Divco West and RXR Realty. However, the company stated that it was not looking to raise more funds and would use the current funding to expand its consumer and restaurant reach across the US.
  
  
    In October 2020, then-CEO Jim Collins was replaced by the company’s CFO Montagano as Collins resigned from the position to pursue personal endeavors. In a statement, Montagano stated that all of Kitchen United’s 51 kitchens across its four locations were occupied, with order volumes up sixfold on a monthly basis since the beginning of 2020.

Keatz operates 10 cloud kitchens across Europe, most notably in the cities of Amsterdam, Madrid, Barcelona, and Munich which, as of January 2021, housed roughly eight restaurants. The company is focusing exclusively on food “made for delivery”, including by designing dishes that can withstand a minimum of a 15-minute journey. It also sells takeout food better suited for delivery. The startup has a portfolio of eight delivery-only food brands, which are all prepared in the same shared kitchens. The company's kitchens are roughly 100-200 sq ft and serve a delivery radius of one mile with delivery platforms such as Deliveroo, UberEats, Glovo, JustEat, Delivery Hero, and TakeAway. In March 2019 the company raised roughly USD 14 million in funding in order to expand its cloud kitchen operations across Europe.

Zuul is a developer of kitchen spaces for restaurants looking to expand their delivery services. The company's service offers a network of delivery-only smart kitchens enabling restaurants to increase their scale. Zuul kitchens fall into two categories: a single kitchen space which can be shared by restaurants at different times and a space dedicated to the use of a single restaurant. The company does not publicly disclose its pricing details, however, tenants are said to pay a monthly membership fee to use its facilities. Furthermore, Zuul revealed that it began offering one-year memberships but stated that initial tenants asked for longer agreements, which prompted the company to consider extending the term of a contract beyond a year. As of December 2020, the company reported having one facility in New York which housed five kitchen units operating five brands.
  
  
    In September 2020, the company announced the launch of its virtual food hall “Zuul Market”. The model is a hybrid between an online marketplace and delivery platform. This is where the marketplace sells items from restaurants that are currently tenants of Zuul’s cloud kitchen facility. The goal behind the new model is to provide a better means of delivery where food prepared by multiple restaurants is taken to one location for distribution. Moreover, the company has partnered with major property developers such as Silverstein Properties and Broad Street Development in order to utilise their office buildings and residential properties for distribution.
  
  
    In February 2021, the company entered the restaurant management technology space by launching ZuulOS, a software platform developed to assist cloud kitchen operators manage kitchen operations (i.e. orders, deliveries, supply sourcing etc.) by managing and sorting orders and deliveries with multiple third party aggregators as well as managing promotional activities and discounts. Zuul also announced that it has come into a partnership with Aurify Brands (restaurant brand development company) to launch a multi-brand cloud kitchen facility out of Aurify’s New York City location.
  
  
    The company acquired Ontray, an online food ordering platform, in January 2020 for an undisclosed fee. The strategy behind the move was to build an online ordering platform that could help restaurant operators independently receive and fulfill delivery orders instead of counting on third-party aggregators. Zuul stated that by building its own in-house ordering platform for direct delivery orders, it could enable members to generate more orders at a higher profit margin by excluding the use of aggregators such as Uber Eats and DoorDash.

Epic Kitchens is a multi-brand cloud kitchen. The company has roughly eight brands utilising its facility, among which are FreshBeets, Fat Brands, Pokeworks, Butterfry Kitchen, and 800 Degrees. Epic Kitchen provides its tenants with an online ordering platform via its website and a kitchen space to work on. Furthermore, Epic Kitchen allows restaurants operating in its facility to retain brand control while its cloud kitchen handles the operational and marketing aspects of the business. Furthermore, brands also have access to third-party delivery partners including DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub, Caviar, and Postmates.
  
  
    In terms of its future plans, the company is looking to include 20 cloud kitchen locations for tenant Fat Brands throughout Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, and New York over 2021–22. As of December 2020, the company possessed just one facility in Chicago which housed roughly nine tenants. The company reported that it planned to add a further 20 locations to its portfolio from 2021–22.

Kitchen Republic offers home-based food startup entrepreneurs a facility where they can scale up operations. The company has two facilities, with the newer site being set up in Amsterdam within a renovated warehouse, and slated to offer professional kitchens as well as work and event space across the building’s 2,500 square meters. According to the company’s website, charges for the facility range from USD 750–1,500 per month based on the space and utilities provided.

The Local Culinary was established in Miami in May 2019 as a cloud kitchen, housing roughly 20 kitchen units at eight  locations, as of October 2020. The company has partnered with aggregators such as Uber Eats Postmates, GrubHub, and DoorDash for delivery.
  
  
    In June 2020, the company adopted a franchising model, being the first cloud kitchen operator in the space to bring 50 distinctive brands to the existing space of independent restaurant owners seeking a new way to expand revenue streams, and optimize their existing kitchen space. The model allows for independent restaurants to incorporate or replicate concepts offered by The Local Culinary’s brand into their existing kitchen space and operation. This will add in to or expand the independent restaurant’s menu offerings, allowing them to increase their customer base. According to the company, the onboarding process for the franchising program takes roughly 10–20 days and includes training of the franchisee’s team, the setting up of their kitchen (if required), provision of tablets with the software application for orders, and organizing packaging. Franchisees are said to pay an initial one-off USD 50,000 to join the program plus a monthly fee of 7% of the gross revenue the franchisee obtains from The Local Culinary’s brands.
  
  
    However, in November 2020, the company decided to waive its initial franchise fee to support independent restaurant brands that have been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and also attract smaller players. Moreover, the company stated that it had been able to sign five new franchise agreements across three states from October–November 2020.
  
  
    The company is further expanding across the US and according to its founder, along with this Miami facility, it has four locations in Florida, three in San Francisco, and a few more in Louisiana which are a mix of its own commissary and franchising spaces. Moreover, the company is also looking to open a lease contract in three locations in New York and two in Chicago.

Amped Kitchens (formerly known as L.A. Prep) provides ready-to-occupy private kitchen spaces to small food manufacturers in Los Angeles. Roughly 10–15% of the company’s tenants are from restaurants utilising its cloud kitchen facilities for delivery. The company is reported to have three facilities which house roughly 170 kitchen units and 26 restaurants. Operating at an entry level with basic space and kitchen utensils, Amped Kitchens is reportedly charging its tenants USD 1,850 per month.
  
  
    The company, which launched in late 2019, is also planning to replicate its LA success in Chicago as a multi-tenant premium food production facility in the Galewood neighborhood. This is being done by the company looking to convert a former television factory into a complex which could house up to 64 kitchen spaces which is estimated to be a USD 30 million investment. However, the company is yet to reveal more details as to when it plans to open the facility.

Garrett’s is a family owned traditional dine-in restaurant based in Arizona. However, amidst the COVID pandemic its operations were forced to shut down in March 2020. This caused its owner, Michael Lopuszynski (who bought the restaurant in the summer of 2018) to look at other avenues of revenue, when it came across Nextbite, a two year old cloud restaurant/ kitchen incubator. The two partnered in September 2020, to convert Garrett’s dine in restaurant into a cloud kitchen and has now a dozen brands operating under them such as  HotBox by Wiz, CraveBurger, Firebelly Wings, Mother Clucker and The Big Melt. Deliveries to customers are undertaken via third party delivery apps. 
  
  
    As per its owner, the kitchen only made USD 22 in sales on its first day with sales increasing every day after by around USD 60, and reaching up to USD 444 in sales for HotBox and Mother Cluckers. He expects the company to reach sales of USD 1,000 per day in the near future. Lopuszynsk further mentioned that he had stop new orders from coming in as they had run out of capacity and resources owing to the higher than expected order volumes. This has caused the company to add further staff to its facility. 
  
  
    Garrett’s and Nextbite are responsible for providing its tenants with specific recipes and the necessary ingredients - with both of them splitting the profits. Garrett’s was the first restaurant in Arizona to join Nextbite’s virtual restaurant programme which is popular among cities in  Los Angeles, San Diego, Pittsburgh, Chicago and Denver.

Fulton Kitchens is a cloud kitchen operator housing 20 kitchens to be rented in a 11,000 square foot facility. Unlike other cloud kitchen operators such as Kitchen United, Fulton has no support personnel for services such as cleaning up and raw material ordering. 
  
  
    Of the space rented out, 20% is estimated to be for cloud kitchens while the remainder caters to startups in the consumer packaged goods space. The company’s Hollywood space includes  units which have hoods, prep tables and sinks, a grease interceptor, heavy power and floor sinks as well as a walk-in cooler and freezer access.

Founded in 2013, REEF Technology (formerly known as ParkJockey Global, a parking lot management company) is mainly involved in providing hardware, software, and management services for parking lots. However, since its inception, the company has expanded to operate businesses such as cloud kitchens, healthcare clinics, logistics, and last mile delivery hubs in empty parking spaces. The company sets up spaces for these businesses using various containers for stores to set up operations, taking advantage of the growing on-demand economy trend where it will house a collection of businesses and services specific to the needs of neighborhoods.
  
  
    Against this backdrop of growth in on-demand food delivery, in 2019, it launched REEF Kitchens, in which parking lots are used for shared kitchen operations. As of November 2020, the company operated in more than 20 markets in North America, with over 100 kitchens consisting of roughly 30 tenants. REEF kitchens are housed in proprietary containers, with each one able to accommodate between one and five restaurant brands or clients. The company refers to its in-garage ghost kitchens as “vessels” and modifies them according to customer requirements. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the company stated that it was performing well owing to its REEF Kitchen business thriving through an increase in on-demand delivery orders. The food offered by REEF’s internal brands comes from US Foods, a food distributor that works with colleges, hotels, and hospitals, apart from being a wholesale supplier to independent restaurants and diners. The company has also partnered with external brands such as Burger Bytes, Della Bowls, and I Heart Mac & Cheese. For delivery, the company partners with brands such as Uber, DoorDash, GetAround, and Nuro.
  
  
    In November 2020, the company received equity funding of USD 700 million, mainly backed by existing investor Softbank and new investor Mubadala Corp. The consortium was further supported through the participation of Oaktree, UBS Asset Management, and venture capital firm Target Global. The funds are expected to be used to scale up operations from 4,800 to 10,000 new locations across the country. Furthermore, REEF launched a USD 300 million fund in partnership with Oaktree. REEF and Oaktree’s infrastructure arm has formed the Neighborhood Property Group to acquire strategic real estate assets.

Ordermark is a developer of an online ordering platform that consolidates food orders from multiple platforms (such as Uber Eats, DoorDash, etc.) and aggregates them to just one device. It also owns a group of virtual restaurant brands operated by a company called Nextbite. 
  
  
    Nextbite is a restaurant brand curator that also operates a cloud kitchen for virtual restaurants. The company supports virtual restaurant operators (mainly home-based or delivery-only caterers) by offering its own in-house virtual restaurant brands to get their business up and running. Nextbite also provides specific menus that are data-driven based on what consumers in that area demand the most. The company currently has in-house brands such as Monster Mac, Grilled Cheese Society, Mother Clucker, Outlaw Burger, and Firebelly Wings, among others. However, there is also an option for external virtual restaurants to bring in their own brand and operate independently within the cloud kitchen space using the general infrastructure provided, such as utilities, ordering platforms, delivery partners, etc. Moreover, the company relies on unused space in restaurants rather than building new kitchens, whereby it operates as a quasi-franchise model that allows restaurants to use Nextbite’s brand names.
  
  
    Furthermore, its tenancy agreements are monthly, providing the tenant with the option to terminate at any time if the business is not profitable. According to management, since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the company has launched roughly 15 brands and has added more than 1,000 delivery-only restaurants across the US. Furthermore, Nextbite uses Ordermark’s delivery aggregation software technology, allowing the company to aggregate online orders into its platform and aggregate multiple delivery brands into the same device. 
  
  
    In October 2020, Ordermark raised USD 120 million in a Series C funding round, which it plans to use in assisting restaurants transition to online ordering.

Sweetheart Kitchen is a Dubai-based delivery-only cloud kitchen which has roughly 30 brands operating in its four cloud kitchen facilities across Dubai and Kuwait, as of December 2020. The cloud kitchen is a private label multi-brand which creates all of the brands within its portfolio (bySWHK).  Furthermore, it does not partner with third-party restaurants looking to outsource their delivery volume. However, the company has linked up with third-party aggregators such as Talabat, Zomato, and Carriage for delivery.
  
  
    The company raised USD 17.7 million in funding in October 2020 in order to expand its operations, with the potential launch of five new brands and opening of 19 new units across the UAE and Kuwait set for early 2021, followed by a planned expansion into Saudi Arabia afterwards. The round was led by Sweetheart Kitchen CEO Peter Schatzberg. To date, the company has received total funding of USD 42.2 million. However, the company has not revealed any plans to expand to the US or European markets.

Virtual Dining Concepts (VDC) is a provider of cloud kitchen services with a focus on foodservice brands built around celebrity endorsements. The company claims to be the leader in celebrity restaurant brands, operating virtual kitchens for brands including Tyga’s Chicken Bites (associated with the rapper Tyga), MrBeast Burger (associated with top-earning YouTube star MrBeast), and Mariah’s Cookies (associated with the singer Mariah Carey), among others.
  
  
    VDC was co-founded by the father-and-son duo of Robert and Robbie Earl. Robert is the former CEO of Hard Rock Cafe and the founder and chairman of Planet Hollywood restaurant brands while his son Robbie manages talent partnerships including relationships with the celebrities who lend their names to VDC restaurant brands.

JustKitchen is a cloud kitchen incorporated in Canada with operations starting in Taiwan in 2019, where is runs a hub-and-spoke model where meals are prepared in a “hub” kitchen (located in the city of Neihu) before being sent to a small unit, a “spoke”, for final assembly, and are thereafter picked up by delivery partners such as Uber Eats.
  
  
    In May 2021, the company announced plans to open its first cloud kitchen facility in Hong Kong. The facility, situated in the Eastern District, is to open by mid-June 2021. The company stated that it aims to open 6-8 cloud kitchen locations in Hong Kong. The  company’s strategy to enter the market includes deploying a decentralized and just-in-time operating model. Moreover, with the delivery of alcohol permitted in Hong Kong, the company is reported to be developing bundled offers for clients that include food and an alcoholic beverage.  For delivery, the company is said to have entered into an agreement with Foodpanda and Uber Eats.
  
  
    The company is looking to expand into three more markets, including Singapore, the Phillipines and the US in 2021.
  
  
    The company currently has 14 independent brands under its cloud kitchen wing, including Smith & Wollensky and TGI Fridays, operating under licensing agreements. Prior to partnering with these restaurants and brands, JustKitchens designs a menu specifically for takeout and delivery. Once the designed menu is launched, the meals are prepared by JustKitchen instead of the brands, which are in turn paid royalties. In this sense, the company’s model can be considered unique.
  
  
    In addition to the licensing model, the company is also looking to develop its own brands and franchise them to other home cooks or independent restaurants. Furthermore, the company has established its own R&D facility to use data analytics to provide restaurants with several options for menu expansion based on customer data.
  
  
    In April 2021, the company commenced trading on Toronto’s TSX Venture Exchange with a direct listing of its common shares, having raised USD 8 million at a valuation of roughly USD 30 million. The company also reported that it plans to list its common shares on the OTCQB exchange in the US and the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in Germany. The IPO round was led by returning investor SparkLabs Taipei. Majority of the stake in JustKitchen’s is owned by its executives, board directors, and employees.

Wired Kitchens is a California-based cloud kitchen operator offering commercial kitchen facilities to independent restaurant brands. The company is yet to start operations and plans to open its first facility in Miami in March 2021. The Miami facility reportedly includes up to 42 kitchens ranging from 240 to 300 square feet each. The company is also setting up a facility in Texas which will include 35 kitchen units with plans to open more facilities in Seattle and Los Angeles. In addition to providing the kitchen space, Wired Kitchens offers its tenants dry, cold, and frozen storage space, equipment leasing, and support in expanding menu offerings or launching new brands.

The Crave Hospitality Group was initially known for its food delivery company (“Crave Delivery”), before it decided to change its business model by launching into cloud kitchens (“Crave Collective”) in November 2020. Its current cloud kitchen facility, set up in Idaho, provides kitchen space for independent restaurant brands and offers tenants marketing, ordering, and delivery software. The new facility is a 15,000-square-foot facility which includes kitchen space for 16 brands (with signed tenancy agreements), with each unit having a three-compartment sink, hand sink, and stainless steel workstations. Moreover, the unit also includes two drive-throughs for customers to pick up orders. A few of the brands planning to set up operations in the facility are Tony G’s, Elliott’s Oyster House, and Rock House Sliders. Unlike other cloud operations, crave employs its own staff to undertake delivery. Furthermore, the company has its own proprietary technology which manages online orders while the facility in Idaho also features a pick-up area for customers.
  
  
    In December 2020, the company raised USD 7.3 million in seed funding led by venture capital firm StageDotO in participation with Capital Eleven and a few undisclosed individual investors. The company is looking to use the funds for the expansion of its cloud kitchen operations in 2021, with it set to open four Crave Collective facilities. Moreover, at the fundraising announcement, the company stated that it was looking to open four facilities in 2021 and a further 10 in 2022 in cities such as Utah’s Salt Lake City and Provo, and Arizona’s Mesa and Chandler.
  
  
    According to reports, tenants are estimated to be paying a monthly fee of roughly USD 6,000 which includes expenses for gas, electricity, and water. In addition to this, Crave collects a 20% cut of each order from tenants for marketing and delivery. Of the 16 restaurants signed up, eight are reported to have inked a three-year agreement, according to Crave founder Scott Howard.

Mealco is a cloud kitchen infrastructure provider and brand curator based in New York. The company offers its kitchen infrastructure to restaurants looking to expand operations for delivery-only meals. In general, the process of getting a new restaurant up and running takes roughly 6-8 weeks. Furthermore, Mealco also undertakes meal prep tasks using its own staff so that the restaurant can focus on expanding its menu concepts. Additionally, the company provides support concerning branding and marketing activities and gives restaurant brands access to a dashboard with real-time data regarding menu performance and customer feedback.
  
  
    As of January 2021, the company is reported to have launched two restaurants that operate in its New York facility delivering to Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. As per the management, there were around 50 brands on the waitlist to join.
  
  
    In January 2021, the company raised USD 7 million in a seed funding round and is looking to use the funds to expand operations throughout New York and surrounding areas during the year, moving to new cities in 2022.

Nimbus Kitchens is a New York-based cloud kitchen operator providing commercial kitchen spaces and solutions to small scale restaurants looking to focus on delivery-only demand. 
  
  
  
  
    The facility includes 10 individual commercial kitchens for rent on an hourly, monthly, or yearly-basis as well as shared work space for outsiders or restaurant members. According to reports, rates on an hourly basis range from USD 20 for a prep-only kitchen to USD 35 per hour for the shift-kitchens and can be rented out for a minimum of 20-hours per month. Businesses can use Nimbus’s online dashboard to book kitchen time, rent storage space, pay invoices, and store permit and insurance information, according to the company.
  
  
    The company currently has one New York based pizza company operating in its facility full time while one space is shared by a bakery, lunch catering company, and a delivery restaurant throughout the day. Other Nimbus members include Quinn, a modern on-demand meal plan delivery service; and Alchemista, a bespoke food-and-beverage service.
  
  
    The founders of the company have stated that it is looking to open at least 10 facilities in the New York Area over 2021-23  with a long term vision of opening 100 facilities by 2030 in major metropolitan markets.

Ghost Kitchen is a cloud kitchen operator who provides culinary space and equipment to restaurants. In February 2021, the company opened its first facility in Charleston, South Carolina, a 5,000 square foot commercial space for restaurateurs, food trucks, and packaged goods companies.The facility is said to consist of 10 main cooking stations with ovens, grills, fryers, and other gear. The company also provides parking space for up to 20 food trucks. The company charges USD 30 per 10 hours shifts  while virtual restaurants are charged USD 1,500 per month for 120 hours per month.

Franchise Creator Inc is a business coaching and consulting firm which assists businesses expand operations via a franchising program. In June 2020, the company opened up Combo Kitchen, a general commissary-style cloud kitchen with a franchise business model. Combo Kitchen acquired its first location in Miami in September 2020 and launched with brands such as Taco Rico and Poke Mahi with a plan to introduce more concepts over the coming months.  Franchise Creator has also been striking deals to incorporate more restaurants into its kitchen facility and also franchise them out to other independent restaurants – a similar model to its Miami-based neighbor, The Local Culinary. 
    The franchise model allows independent restaurants to act as franchisees for brands such as Taco Rico and Poke Mahi and expand their menu offerings. In return, Combo Kitchen charges these restaurants a royalty fee, shared between the company and the restaurant brand owners. 
    In addition to the cloud kitchen facility in Miami, the company is running a franchise program in three of its franchise brand kitchens in Miami (Nantucket Shrimp Shack, 109 Burger Joint, and King of Racks – Food Truck). In this program the company provides independent restaurants with the ability to expand operations and an increased brand awareness via marketing promotions. 
    The company has partnered with all the major third-party online food delivery aggregators such as UberEats, GrubHub, and DoorDash.

Kitchen Ventures is a cloud kitchen operator based in London. The company has its own cloud kitchen facility which houses five of its own virtual brands. In January 2021, the company received USD 2 million in funding to expand its cloud kitchen network to select international markets. Founder Jonny Boud stated that they would also use the funds to grow its own virtual brand concept through licensing and offering a franchise program to independent restaurants who may want to use their under-utilized kitchen space to expand their menu offerings. The company’s facility reportedly houses brands such as Giz 'N' Greens Pizza Pies, Tacos El Ray, Farmbird, and Local Greens among others. Kitchen Ventures has partnered with third party aggregators such as Deliveroo and Uber Eats while also allowing customers to place orders on the company’s own website.

Founded in 2015, Butler Hospitality is an on-demand platform providing hotel room service. The company delivers food to any hotel room and specializes in offering offsite room service for limited-service hotels. The startup essentially occupies a hotel kitchen in one property, which it uses to provide meal delivery services to in-house guests in the same property and nearby hotels (within 30 minutes). After taking over the hotel kitchen, Butler Hospitality handles everything from menu design and meal preparation to billing. As of 2020, the company reported operating out of five hotel kitchens in New York. Moreover, Butler is cited as having a 10% revenue sharing agreement with its tenants for use of its facilities.
  
  
    In July 2020, the company raised USD 15 million in Series A funding, which will be used for expansion purposes, especially to areas outside New York, Chicago, Miami, and Washington. Consequently, the company announced its expansion into Chicago in October 2020, opening its first cloud kitchen inside The Godfrey Hotel, a unit of the Oxford Hotels & Resorts Group. The decision to move into Chicago came after the company had been operating in New York for five years, working with more than 120 hotels and servicing 35,000 hotel rooms. Furthermore, the company stated that it was on track to open additional hubs later in the year in Chicago, along with new operations in Miami and Washington DC.

The US Cloud Kitchen Addressable Market Value to Range Between USD 49.4-115.3 Billion

Market Sizing

Notable Investors

Kima Ventures is one of the world's most active early-stage investors, investing in 2 to 3 startups per week all over the world; providing founders with funding, network, and support for them to reach the next steps of their journey. The firm invests from seed to Series A, mostly as lead investor but also working alongside other investors; backing ambitious founders who work hard to build awesome things that more and more people use everyday. The company helps them to build a great team, to learn very quickly, to keep the right focus and execute towards growth. Kima takes pride of itself in working side-by-side with entrepreneurs. They claim to understand that fundraising is only one step in the company’s journey, that’s why they take quick decisions and make the fundraising process as smooth as possible so the founders can get back to the work of building their business. Kima considers itself not only an investor, but a network of founders and experts sharing a pay it forward mindset. Headquartered in Paris with an office in London, the company was founded and backed by Xavier Niel, founder of Iliad and supporter of entrepreneurs through such projects as 42, Station F and 101projets. Over the last 5 years Kima has invested in over 400 startups in 24 different countries.

LocalGlobe is a UK-based venture capital firm that focuses on seed and impact investments. Seeding ambitious UK founders since 1999 inc Citymapper, Improbable, Lovefilm, Moo, Tweetdeck, Transferwise and Zoopla.

GFC is a globally oriented, stage agnostic venture capital firm that empowers gifted entrepreneurs. The firm seeks to invest in companies that operate within the internet, retail, financial software, media, communication, and information technology sectors. It was founded by Oliver Samwer in 2013 and is based in Berlin, Berlin, Germany.

Heartcore Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm devoted to backing founders building category-defining consumer internet brands. Founded as Sunstone Capital in 2007, Heartcore has raised over $500 million in committed capital across four fund generations. The firm has offices in Copenhagen, Berlin, and Paris but invests across Europe and occasionally in the United States. Heartcore has backed more than 70 exceptional founding teams.

BECO Capital provides growth capital and hands-on operational support for early-stage technology companies. It is a technology-focused venture capital that supports entrepreneurs and financial sectors to raise funds. The company helps small companies with growth capital and hands-on operational mentorship in their early stage of development. It was founded in 2012 and is based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. BECO Capital was founded on February 1, 2014, by Dany Farha and Amir Farha, and it is headquartered in Dubai.

A multinational firm with diverse operations across strategic sectors.

Project A is an early-stage venture capital firm, combining financial and operational support for technology companies. In addition to $600 M in assets under management, Project A provides its portfolio companies with a wide range of operational support services. This includes more than 100 experts from key areas such as software engineering, business intelligence, marketing, and recruiting. The portfolio includes companies such as Trade Republic, sennder, KRY, Catawiki, WorldRemit, Spryker, and Voi.

K Fund is a venture capital firm that provides early-stage venture investments to Spanish startups. The company wants to promote the evolution of the Spanish startup ecosystem by investing in digital and technological companies. It was founded in 2016 by Inaki Arolla, Carina Szpilka and Ian Noel and is based in Madrid.

Launched as Google Ventures in 2009, GV is the venture capital arm of Alphabet, Inc. They’ve invested in more than 300 companies that push the edge of what’s possible. In the fields of life science, healthcare, artificial intelligence, robotics, transportation, cyber security, and agriculture, their companies aim to improve lives and change industries.  They’ve built a team of world-class engineers, designers, physicians, scientists, marketers, and investors who work together to provide these startups exceptional support on the road to success. They help their companies interface with Google, providing unique access to the world’s best technology and talent.

Fidelity is a privately-owned investment manager focusing on a diverse set of customers. It also provides IRAs, 401(k) rollovers, annuities, discount brokerage services, retirement services, estate planning, wealth management, securities execution and clearance, and life insurance services to its clients. Fidelity provides its services to individual investors, businesses, financial advisors, and institutions. It manages equity, fixed income, and balanced mutual funds. Fidelity invests in the public equity and fixed income markets across the globe. It conducts in-house research to make its investments.  It helps over 32 million people feel more confident in their most important financial goals, manage employee benefit programs for over 22,000 businesses, and support more than 13,000 financial institutions with innovative investment and technology solutions to grow their businesses. Headquartered in Boston, Fidelity serves its customers through 12 regional offices and more than 190 Investor Centers in the United States.

RXR Realty is a vertically integrated private real estate company specializing in investment management, property management, development, design, construction, leasing, and financing. It is committed to building socially, economically, and environmentally responsible communities that source and execute acquisitions, joint ventures, and equity investments by pursuing returns in-line with its value-add strategies, opportunistic outlooks, and risk mitigation. RXR Realty was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in New York.

Andreessen Horowitz is a venture capital firm specializing in investing in seed, start-ups, early, mid stage, growth, and late stage. It prefers to invest in the social media business and technology sector with a focus on software, back-end infrastructure, infrastructure of the Internet, cloud computing, enterprise software and services, consumer, business Internet, mobile-Internet, consumer Internet, cloud computing, data-storage, social network browsers data-storage, consumer electronics, networking functions, software related biology, biotech, and medicine companies at the intersection of computer science and life sciences with a focus on digital therapeutics, cloud technology in biology, and computational medicine.

Base10 is an early-stage venture capital firm investing in the automation of the real economy. They bring automation to traditional sectors of the economy.  Today, the company has backed nearly 30 companies. Base10 creates industry teams that consider what is going to happen in the next five years, and then call the companies they see playing a role. It either turns into an investment, or Base10 will follow the company for 18 months. It is based in San Francisco, California, and was founded in 2017.

Battery Ventures is a venture capital firm with offices in Boston, Silicon Valley, and Israel. Battery invests in potentially cutting-edge, category-defining businesses in markets including application software, IT infrastructure technologies, consumer-internet and mobile services, and industrial technologies.

Endeavor Catalyst is the rules-based, co-investment fund of Endeavor, set up to invest exclusively in Endeavor Entrepreneur-led companies and to sustain Endeavor’s long-term operations in a mission-aligned way. Launched in 2012, Endeavor Catalyst has ~$250M+ AUM across three funds and has made 200+ investments to date in 32+ different markets. Today The Endeavor Catalyst portfolio has 37 companies valued at $1B+, including 29 unicorns. Investments include Globant (NYSE:GLOB), Rappi, and Creditas in Latin America; Yemeksepeti.com and Careem in MENA; and Bukalapak and Carro in Indonesia.

VentureSouq operates a large co-investment platform with a global investment portfolio.

Rise Capital is a global investment firm that focuses on making expansion-stage investments in Internet businesses in Emerging Markets.  They back industry-leading businesses run by world-class entrepreneurs who attack large addressable market opportunities. Leveraging our experience as Emerging Market Internet operators and investors, they strategically guide these businesses to scale.

Lumia is an expansion-stage VC firm partnering with forward-thinking US and European innovators expanding internationally for breakout growth.   Lumia employs a hands-on strategy, working closely with management teams by pairing Silicon Valley insights and contacts with global knowledge sharing and relationships to propel companies through expansion-stage challenges and opportunities. It prefers to invest in internet and software companies with a focus on SaaS, mobile, cloud computing, infrastructure, and big data. It typically invests between $3 million and $30 million in companies with greater than $10 million annualized net sales.  Lumia also invests in select early stage opportunities via its ''Telescope'' program.   The company focuses on investing in primary and secondary transactions and in common and preferred shares. Lumia Capital was founded by Martin Gedalin in 2011 and is headquartered in San Francisco.

Contact us to access your trial accounts, where you’ll get:<ul><li>Access to 55+ emerging industry hubs</li><li>Our full company database</li><li>Detailed industry updates sent straight to your email</li></ul>

Now anyone can become a software developer.

No-code Software

New technologies are opening up mental health services to previously overbooked and underserved populations.

Mental Health Tech

Using data and automation to achieve 24/7 production.

Smart Factory

Unlock the powerful data you need to stay on top of emerging industries

/sectors/commerce-and-hospitality/updates?industry=5

/sectors/commerce-and-hospitality/updates/5979?industry=5

Kitchen United acquires Zuul to improve technology platform

/sectors/commerce-and-hospitality/updates/5976?industry=5

Canada Based Ghost Kitchen Brands Opens up First Location in the US

/sectors/commerce-and-hospitality/updates/4089?industry=5

C3 raises USD 80 million in Series B funding

Moving industry forward with next-generation advancements in energy storage and transmission.

Climate Tech - Energy

New technology allows individuals and organizations to become carbon intelligent.

Climate Tech - Software

Clean energy solutions for the long haul.

Hydrogen Economy

A new wave of meat, fish, and poultry alternatives are driving this hyper-growth industry into the mainstream.

Plant Based Meat

A booming food and beverage segment with a history as rich and varied as its present-day product offerings.

Plant Based Dairy and Egg

Making meat sustainable over the long term.

Cell Cultured Meat

Earth-friendly biotech solutions for the textile, packaging and construction industries.

Sustainable Materials

Tech solutions for achieving global anti-wastage targets.

Food Waste

Reinforcing recycling, rerouting refuse, and reducing wasteflows

Waste Recovery and Management Tech

Vertical farming brings fresh produce closer to consumers with efficient, advanced technology.

Vertical Farming

Sustainably solving the food shortages of the future.

Smart Farming

Automation and robotics are finally creating solutions for the complexities of doorstep deliveries.

Last Mile Delivery Automation

Using online platforms, autonomy, electric and fuel-cell tech solutions to shape the future of trucking.

Truck Industry Tech

Providing a seamless consumer experience is one hope for bringing back brick and mortar retail, automated stores are being built to do just that.

Automated Stores

Speeding up sales, cutting costs, and preparing for the future of retail—whether brick-and-mortar or online.

Retail Industry Robots

Facial recognition delivers incredible convenience to consumers, as well as serious risks.

Facial Recognition

Helping restaurants become more safe, more profitable, and more interesting.

Restaurant Industry Robotics

From fast food to fine dining, everything but the kitchen sink is suddenly just a tap away.

Online Food Delivery

Property owners and real estate companies are able to handle larger portfolios while offering faster and cheaper services.

Residential Proptech

New data privacy regulations have opened up space for a new wave of compliance-focused startups.

Digital Privacy Tools

AI-based solutions for evolving digital threats.

Next-gen Cybersecurity

The tools that power remote work are define the next generation of enterprise software.