SoftBank Vision Fund II in talks to invest in Dubai cloud kitchen Kitopi

Dubai: SoftBank Group Corp. is in talks to invest in Dubai-based "cloud kitchen" Kitopi's latest funding round using its second technology fund, sources familiar with the matter said.

The Japanese company's Vision Fund II has put forward a proposal to lead an investment of about $400 million in Kitopi, said the sources, who declined to be named as the matter is not public. Kitopi operates more than 60 kitchens and has more than 1500 employees.

SoftBank and Kitopi declined to comment for this story.


Cloud kitchens, facilities built to prepare food specifically for delivery, have benefited from the shift to online services during the Covid-19 pandemic. These "dark", "cloud" or "ghost" kitchens have no physical presence as a restaurant, and offer delivery-only services from a centralised location through a mobile app. Allied Market Research in India has estimated that the global cloud kitchen industry could be worth about $71 billion by 2027 compared with $43 billion in 2019.

Earlier this year, Kitopi hired Bank of America to help raise $150-200 million for expansion into Southeast Asia, sources said. Since inception, the company has raised $117.2 million from investors including Dubai-based venture capital firm BECO Capital and US-based Lumia Capital.

SoftBank Vision Fund II, which has targeted $108 billion in fundraising, was seeded with $38 billion from SoftBank's own funds.