Japanese multinational conglomerate holding company SoftBank Group is reportedly in talks to invest in Dubai cloud kitchen Kitopi’s latest funding round through its second technology fund.
According to reliable sources, the Japanese company’s Vision Fund 2 has proposed to spearhead an investment of about $400 million in Kitopi. Both SoftBank and Kitopi have not offered any comments regarding the matter.
Cloud kitchens are facilities designed expressly to cook meals for delivery, and they have benefited from the transition to online services during the coronavirus outbreak. These “dark”, “cloud” or “ghost” kitchens don’t have a physical presence as a restaurant and provides delivery-only services from a centralized location through a mobile app.
According to Allied Market Research in India, the global cloud kitchen market might be valued at $71 billion by 2027, up from $43 billion in 2019.
Kitopi recruited Bank of America early this year to assist with a fundraising round that is projected to produce $150 million to $200 million in funding to expand into Southeast Asia, according to media reports.
SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2, which has targeted $108 billion in fundraising, was seeded with $38 billion from SoftBank’s own funds.
Since its establishment, Kitopi has raised $117.2 million from investors including BECO Capital, a Dubai-based venture capital firm, and Lumia Capital, a venture capital firm based in the United States.
Kitopi
Headquartered in Dubai, Kitopi is the world’s leading state-of-the-art, managed cloud kitchen platform. The startup operates more than 60 kitchens and has over 1500 employees. Kitopi enables restaurants to open delivery-only locations by providing the necessary infrastructure and software with minimal capital expenditures and time as well as taking care of the entire customer experience journey.
