Dubai's dining scene rivals some of the biggest foodie capitals in the world and ranks 8th most diverse, serving an estimated 62 national cuisines. From Michelin star restaurants to food truck parks, the city's residents are spoilt for choice. Food delivery has also grown in popularity over the last decade, and with 2020's pandemic, restaurants began seeing unprecedented demand for quick, high-quality meal delivery. This trend came as a welcome relief to the hospitality industry that was among the hardest hit due to lockdowns.
Seeing an opportunity to serve delivery-only customers, entrepreneurs in the cloud kitchen space saw a massive opportunity for growth, supporting existing restaurant operations with reduced overheads and new chefs entering the food industry with minimal capital. Despite easing restrictions on in-person dining, cloud kitchens continue to grow, becoming the unlikely success story that flourished from 2020.
The cloud kitchen concept
Cloud kitchens, also known as shared kitchens or ghost kitchens, produce food specifically for delivery with no physical location to serve patrons. A collective of multiple brands under the same roof, members of cloud kitchens can take advantage of shared facilities that lower their individual costs. Meals are prepared from delivery-optimized menus, taking great care to package and transport meals for optimal presentation. Restaurants participating in a cloud kitchen utilize the same shared delivery apps and services, like Deliveroo and Uber Eats, to get their meals to their customers.
Kitopi
Kitopi is a leading cloud kitchen platform. It was founded in January 2018 in Dubai and has since spread its wings to Kuwait, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia. This platform serves more than 200 food and beverage brands, hosting over 60 kitchens, and is a one-stop-shop for restaurants looking for comprehensive cloud kitchen packages. Kitopi takes care of all the food production and delivery processes, sourcing ingredients, cooking, packing, and even delivering the food. Kitopi uses state-of-the-art technology to enable seamless food preparation and delivery processes.
Kitch
Dubai-based Kitch offers both cloud kitchen and storefront operations, making it a unique hybrid in the food and beverage world. Kitch is keen on developing partnerships with aspiring chefs, as well as existing names in the industry. Earlier this year, a franchise agreement was made with Lebanese restaurant Barbar to expand the famous eatery's reach across the GCC. With an emphasis on markets in UAE and Saudi Arabia, Kitch is able to target the majority of the MENA demand for food delivery services, although expansions into other countries like Qatar are also on the docket.
Kitchen Nation
Located in Jumeirah Lake Towers in Dubai, Kitchen Nation aspires to be the number one destination for entrepreneurial chefs and restauranters looking to break into the delivery market. Their services include back-of-house as well as front-of-house staff to ensure partnering brands can focus on prepping quality food, menu development, branding, and more.
iKcon
iKcon stands for Innovative Kitchen Concepts. This platform provides smart kitchen spaces for various food and beverage brands. Thus far, it has started more than 15 live kitchens and onboarded more than 70 brands. Apart from kitchen spaces, iKcon also provides customer service, procurement, storage facilities, and production units. iKcon is found in Dubai and Abu Dhabi and expects to open outlets in Riyadh and Jeddah.
A growing industry
Despite the staggering number of cloud kitchen brands (currently estimated at around 400 in the UAE), the momentum continues to grow as consumers support the convenience and diversity of food delivery services. Abdallah Yafi, Managing Partner at B&Y Venture Partners, was one of the investors supporting iKon, believing that the rising trend of food delivery would greatly surpass the period of the pandemic: "The cloud kitchen space is an exciting industry that is poised for growth alongside the food delivery market which continues to benefit from COVID-19 tailwinds."
F&B companies looking at setting up a business in Dubai are able to take advantage of the region's well-established commercial infrastructure, from leasing office space for executive teams to business licensing. As one of the best investor markets in the world, the region is well situated to support continued innovations in the cloud kitchen space, offering a new facet to the city's dynamic food culture.