Dubai, UAE,gulftech – Kitopi, the Dubai-founded tech-powered food company, celebrates a double milestone this month with two new market launches in the GCC as it completes 4 years in the region.
As the world’s leading managed cloud kitchen platform today with 200+ brand partners, 3,500+ employees and 80+ cloud kitchens across the GCC, Kitopi is set to launch its first kitchens in two new markets – Bahrain and Qatar, with further expansion to Singapore and Malaysia planned for the second half of 2022.
First launched in Dubai, UAE in January 2018, Kitopi has grown to become one of the best success stories in the MENA startup world. In July 2021, Kitopi announced its $415 million Series C funding round, led by the world’s largest technology-focused investment fund, Softbank Group Corp’s Vision Fund 2. This investment, which marked the fund’s first investment in a UAE-headquartered company, catapulted Kitopi to the prestigious ‘Unicorn’ status, making it the fastest Unicorn to have emerged from the MENA region.
Kitopi, which stands for Kitchen Utopia, was founded by Mohamad Ballout, Saman Darkan, Bader Ataya and Andy Andreas to help food brands scale and expand across borders with minimal capital expenditures and operating expenses by taking care of the entire operations process- from supply chain and staff training to food preparation, delivery, and customer experience. From an initial focus on on-demand food delivery, Kitopi has since expanded its offerings to include meal plans and more-recently, dine-in concepts.
Kitopi recently announced its investments in multiple leading food groups to mark a new phase of its growth strategy across its markets. This strategy will see Kitopi investing up to $1B in the next two years to grow a network of the best local, regional and international brands that have synergy with its operating platform, allowing brands to leverage its proprietary technology and infrastructure to grow at an accelerated pace while preserving the customer experience. Alongside its new strategy, Kitopi will continue to support licensed brands alongside its portfolio of invested brands.
As a leading food tech business, Kitopi’s growth and success has largely been fueled by its focus on technology and innovation. Kitopi’s kitchens are powered by its proprietary Smart Kitchen Operating System (SKOS)- an in-house suite of applications that optimizes the performance of its cloud kitchen operations in real time. Built to ensure great customer experience, SKOS maximizes operational efficiency across the simultaneous operations of multiple brands in a single kitchen. Since its initial launch, SKOS has enabled Kitopi to significantly increase its order volume while reducing kitchen preparation time by 40%. Along with its expansion plans, Kitopi will continue its focus on technological innovation, leveraging data science and artificial intelligence to reinvent the food industry as we know it today.
With its newly launched markets in Bahrain and Qatar, Kitopi is now serving customers in five markets across the GCC, and customers can expect further offerings from Kitopi this year.
‘To realize our mission of satisfying the world’s appetite, our commitment involves not only expanding our reach across countries and regions, but diversifying our offerings for customers. This means not only giving our customers access to the best brands and cuisines, but reaching them in ways that cater to different needs, preferences and lifestyle choices. As a consumer-focused company, we are always listening to our consumers and anticipating their needs to ensure we are always offering them the best in quality, in choices and in flexibility’. Mohamad Ballout, co-founder and CEO of Kitopi, said.
Reflecting on Kitopi’s successful four years, Ballout continued, `We have enjoyed an incredible four year-journey, all thanks to the support we have received from our talented colleagues, our trusted partners and our loyal customers, without whom we would not be where we are today. As we celebrate this milestone, we are looking ahead with gratitude, hope and an abundance of ambition. We are in a privileged and unique position to bring value to customers, to food brands, and to the F&B ecosystem at large. As we expand our global reach, we are setting our sights on creating possibilities in the F&B and food technology space beyond what we know as possible today, and we are not looking back.’
