# CloudKitchens

CloudKitchens is a ghost kitchen and technology company run by Uber's cofounder Travis Kalanick.
CloudKitchens' tech and real estate is focused on growing the restaurant and food-delivery markets. It owns thousands of units of real estate and its software is used by hundreds of thousands of restaurants.

## History

The first CloudKitchens facility opened in Los Angeles, California.
In 2018, Travis Kalanick purchased a controlling stake of the infant company from Sky Dayton and Diego Berdakin when it owned two facilities. It was purchased for $150 million inside a holding company named City Storage Systems LLC.
In January 2019, Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, Public Investment Fund, invested $400 million in the startup's Series A round. By that time, Kalanick had invested $300 million in the company; he sold $1.4 billion of his Uber stock by May 2019.
In 2021, CloudKitchens began selling software to Brick and Mortar restaurants. In November that year, CloudKitchens raised another $850 million in a funding round that included Microsoft. Microsoft had previously backed Kalanick's Uber.
In 2022, Kitchen United aimed to compete with CloudKitchens by raising $100 million dollars of venture funding. Kitchen United was not successful. It sold it's real estate in late 2023.
CloudKitchens intentionally maintained a low media profile for years. In 2024, it's CEO began speaking publicly about the companies plans, in an apparent loosening of it's stealth policies.

## Real Estate

CloudKitchens builds ghost kitchens and other real estate for the food industry. A ghost kitchen (or "dark kitchen") allows the kitchen space to operate as a commissary to others, which lets costs be shared and can exist in lower-overhead spaces than a standard restaurant. Ghost kitchen partners include:
* Sweetgreen
* The Halal Guys
* Chick-fil-A
* Wendy's
* Burger King
Some of CloudKitchens' real estate includes software and robotic automation that lowers cost for tenants.

## Robotics

CloudKitchens builds robots that prepare food and automate the conveyance of food. By 2024, millions of orders of food had been conveyed robotically.

## Otter

CloudKitchens created Otter, a software product, which consolidates orders from various platforms (such as Uber Eats, Postmates, Caviar, DoorDash) for kitchens. By 2024, Otter grew to process 18% of food delivery in the US.
Over time, the Otter software suite expanded to serve other restaurant use cases. Otter now offers a Point of Sales terminals, Kitchen Display Units, and ordering Kiosks.

## Internet Food Court

In April 2020, CloudKitchens launched a short-lived experimental "Internet Food Court" in Koreatown, Los Angeles. After the pandemic, CloudKitchens began investing in this idea again. It launched a digital food court targetting office workers.

## Future Foods

CloudKitchens' branding division is named Future Foods. Virtual restaurant brands (or "pseudo-restaurants") are the opposite of a ghost kitchen: they allow existing restaurants to deliver food with the Future Foods brands. Future Foods handles marketing including food photography.
Many Future Food's brands are provocative or whimsically named, such as
* Excuse My French Toast
* Egg the F* Out
* B*tch Don't Grill My Cheese
* Charcootz
* LA Breakfast Club
* Send Noods
* Brooklyn Calzones
* Devil's Soul Food
* Phuket I'm Vegan

## Acquisitions and lobbying

It acquired FoodStars BH Ltd, which opened in 2015.