SoftBank In Funding Talks With Dubai Cloud Kitchen Platform Kitopi

SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2 is in talks to invest in Dubai cloud kitchen Kitopi’s latest funding round, Reuters reported, citing sources.

Earlier this year Kitopi teamed up with Bank of America for assistance in the funding round, a source told Reuters. The funding is anticipated to total $150 million to $200 million, which will be used for the company’s Southeast Asia expansion strategy.

SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2 has proposed leading the investment in Kitopi with $400 million, the source said, per Reuters.

Kitopi provides a Kitchen as a Service (KaaS) platform that gives eateries a way to open delivery-only locations. Kitopi provides the infrastructure and software and requires little capital and time.

Cloud kitchens are built to prepare food specifically for delivery and don’t have a physical location as a restaurant. The delivery-only services work from a central location via a mobile app. The global cloud kitchen space in India could be worth about $71 billion by 2027. It was worth $43 billion in 2019, according to estimates by Allied Market Research, per Reuters.

Dubai-headquartered Kitopi operates 60-plus kitchens and has more than 1,500 employees. It was co-founded in 2018 by CCO Andres Arenas, CGO Bader Ataya, CEO Mohamad Ballout and CPO Saman Darkan. Kitopi’s latest funding round was a $60 million Series B in 2019.

Kitopi has raised $117.2 million in total from investors including Dubai-based venture capital firm BECO Capital and U.S.-based Lumia Capital, per Reuters.

The startup announced in March that it is seeking to raise $200 million for its expansion efforts across Southeast Asia. The funding could give the privately-held Kitopi an estimated $1 billion valuation.

In an interview with PYMNTS, Noodles & Company CEO Dave Boennighausen told Karen Webster by expanding its digital menu of off-premises-friendly selections, the company saw a 128 percent year-over-year growth in digital sales, comprising 62 percent of total sales.