CloudKitchens

CloudKitchens is a ghost kitchen company started by Diego Berdakin and EarthLink founder Sky Dayton in 2015. Travis Kalanick, cofounder of Uber, bought control of the company in 2018.

CloudKitchens offers food preparation facilities for delivery-only food service. The first CloudKitchens warehouse opened in Los Angeles, California.

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

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. 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.

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

In 2022, the company was sued by three of its operators for allegedly violating labor laws and deceptive business practices. According to a report published by Business Insider, over 70% of CloudKitchens' operators left the company within a year. It was also alleged by partners that many facilities lacked property security and food safety measures. 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.

Ghost kitchen operations
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
 * Fat Sal's Deli
 * Chick-fil-A
 * Wendy's
 * Burger King
 * Quick n Split Burgers and Homemade Ice Cream

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

Internet Food Court
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.

Future Foods
CloudKitchens' virtual restaurant 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.

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

CloudKitchens brands

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

Acquisitions and lobbying
It acquired FoodStars BH Ltd, which opened in 2015.

Bradley Tusk, American businessman and politician, provides political lobbying for the company.