In 2018, Travis Kalanick purchased a controlling stake in City Storage Systems LLC, founded by Diego Berdakin and Sky Dayton,^[5] for $150 million, which operates as the parent company of CloudKitchens and is operated by Berdakin and Barak Diskin.^[7][8] This parent company arrangement allows CloudKitchens to operate as a shell company and to keep a level of secrecy or stealth to the startup.^{[9][8][10][11]}

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, Travis Kalanick had invested $300 million in the company; he sold $1.4 billion of his Uber stock by May 2019.^[12][13] Sources noted Kalanick's ties to Saudi Arabia, which includes Kalanick serving on an advisory board for Neom, Saudi Arabia's plan to build a futuristic "mega city" in the desert.^{[14][15][16][13]}

In November 2021, CloudKitchens raised another $850 million in a funding round, valuing the company at $15 billion.^[17] Investors included Microsoft, which previously backed Kalanick's Uber.^[18]

In 2022, the company was sued by three of its operators for allegedly violating labor laws and deceptive business practices.^[19] According to a report published by Business Insider, over 70% of CloudKitchens' operators left the company within a year.^[20] It was also alleged by partners that many facilities lacked property security and food safety measures.^[21][22][23] The company closed down sites in New York and Tennessee, cut back on new building purchases, and conducted layoffs, according to a Financial Times report from September 2023.^[24]

A ghost kitchen (or "dark kitchen"^[12]) 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.^[25][26][27] Ghost kitchen partners include:

• Sweetgreen^[25]
• The Halal Guys^[16]
• Fat Sal's Deli^[16]
• Chick-fil-A^[8]
• Wendy's^[8]
• Burger King^[8]

CloudKitchens created Otter, a food order platform, which consolidates orders from various platforms (such as Uber Eats, Postmates, Caviar, DoorDash) for kitchens.^[28][29]

In April 2020, CloudKitchens launched—and closed—an experiment called the "Internet Food Court" in Koreatown, Los Angeles, with retro 8-bit. The Internet Food Court allowed families to order delivery from 100 virtual restaurants.^[1]

CloudKitchens' virtual restaurant division is named Future Foods.^[30][31] Virtual restaurant brands (or "pseudo-restaurants"^[32]) are the opposite of a ghost kitchen: they allow existing restaurants to deliver food with the Future Foods brands.^[25] Future Foods handles marketing including food photography.^[33]

These Future Foods brand orders are organized for a restaurateur using the Otter order system.^[29]

CloudKitchens brands edit

• Excuse My French Toast^[13][29]
• Egg the F* Out^[13]
• B*tch Don't Grill My Cheese^{[13][10][29][34]}
• Charcootz^[1]
• LA Breakfast Club^[1]
• Send Noods^[29]
• Brooklyn Calzones^[29]
• Cupid's Wings^[29]
• Cheeky's Cheesesteaks^[29]
• Groovy Island Pizza^[29]
• Pimp My Pasta^[29]
• OMG BBBQLOL^[29]
• F*cking Good Pizza^[29]
• Hummus Hero^[29]
• Beverly Hills Platters^[29]
• Bob's Kabobs^[29]
• Fabulous Falafel^[29]
• Pastrami & Pickles^[29]
• Big Hotdog Energy^[29]
• Burger Mansion^[30]
• Killer Wings^[30]
• Devil's Soul Food^[29]
• Phuket I'm Vegan^[34]

It acquired FoodStars BH Ltd, which opened in 2015.^[10][32]

Bradley Tusk, American businessman and politician, provides political lobbying for the company.^[8]

• Official website