Investment in cloud kitchens in the Arab world increased substantially in the month of Oct 2020. A big chunk of this increase can be attributed to newly launched Kaykroo’s $4 million worth funding round, as well as Sweetheart Kitchen’s $17.7 million Series C round which was backed by “strategic investors.”
While the company didn’t divulge the identity of the so-called “strategic investor”, all evidence is pointing towards it being Delivery Hero, the German food delivery giant.
Note that Delivery Hero owns 60% of Sweetheart Kitchen in the UAE, Kuwait, and Singapore, besides owning 100% of the startup’s Saudi Arabia operations. What was even more interesting about Sweetheart Kitchen’s latest round was that the company’s founder and CEO Peter Schatzberg himself led the round, which is somewhat unusual in the startup ecosystem worldwide.
Meanwhile, new data from Statista claims that the online delivery market in the UAE alone will become worth $1.1 billion by the end of 2020. Experts seem to be of the view that this boost in the food delivery market is essentially poising the cloud kitchen business for an expedited growth.
Cloud kitchens in Egypt and Tunisia bagged nine new deals each, which make both these countries the best-performers in the region when it comes to the total number of deals signed.
