• UAE-based cloud kitchen The Cloud has raised a $10 million Series A round, led by Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP) and Olayan Financing Company with participation from Rua Growth Fund. 
• Founded in 2019 by Kamil Rogalinski and George Karam, The Cloud allows restaurant owners to increase their kitchen utilisation by hosting third-party food delivery brands.
• The Series A funding will support the startup’s expansion plans in the GCC and Europe and help develop its AI-powered kitchen matching platform.

Press release:

The Cloud, the leading third-generation B2B2C cloud kitchen platform, has secured $10 million in funding led by Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP) and Olayan Financing Company (the Middle East investment arm of The Olayan Group) with participation from Rua Growth Fund. 

The successful Series A funding follows an initial pre-seed round at the end of 2019, which was led by Elēkrŏn Ventures and a subsequent seed round at the end of 2020, which was led by MEVP. The new funding round, led by a consortium of venture investors, will allow The Cloud to continue its expansion in GCC and Europe. The investment also provides bandwidth for the company to increase and accelerate the development of its AI-powered kitchen matching platform.

The Cloud was established in 2019 and is supported by Hub71, Abu Dhabi’s unique, global tech ecosystem. The Cloud has been built on the principle of ‘the Airbnb of kitchens’ and allows restaurant owners to increase their kitchen utilisation by transforming restaurants into cloud kitchens. The Company’s proprietary tech stack and virtual brands portfolio enables restaurants to achieve an entire virtual set-up in less than  30 days. The tech suite developed fully in-house by the company’s founders Kamil Rogalinski and George Karam, allows the Company to rapidly scale to international markets. In less than 2 years of operations, the Company already boasts of a presence in UAE, KSA and Europe.

George Karam, co-founder & CEO of The Cloud, said: “The Cloud completely reimagines what a restaurant is and how it achieves scalability in the digital economy, which is why I am so delighted that our Series A funding raised $10 million in such a short space of time. We will utilise this funding to expand into KSA, make an even bigger impact on restaurant owners, and further bolster our talent and infrastructure. I am grateful to work with MEVP, Olayan Financing Company, and Rua Growth Fund, and I’m looking forward to expanding The Cloud’s market leadership in the cloud kitchen, virtual restaurant, and online food ordering segments and growing the brand regionally and globally, delivering strong returns for our investors.”

Ankit Sarwahi, Managing Director, Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP), said: “The Cloud is another step towards the future of food. They are truly collaborative in approach and operate adroitly at the delicate intersection of restaurant owners, aggregators and food connoisseurs. This unique positioning is central to our investment in The Cloud.”

A spokesperson for the Olayan Financing Company, a Saudi company holding and managing the Olayan Group’s Middle Eastern assets, said: “We recognize that The Cloud - which is now firmly established in the UAE’s food technology, online food ordering and delivery industries - is at the heart of today’s increasingly complex restaurant ecosystem. It accelerates growth by unleashing entrepreneurial opportunities and enabling chefs and restaurant owners to focus on what they do best – making great food and building incredible brands.”

Turki Aljoaib, Managing Partner, Rua Growth Fund, said: “We at Rua are proud to be part of The Cloud’s journey. The Cloud was born out of the founders’ true pain point as a restaurant operator and the discovery of the unique opportunity that was present under covid conditions that shifted orders online, coupled with the rising popularity of cloud kitchens. George Karam and Kamil Rogalinski and the team at the Cloud are yet another example of the region’s growing ability to foster talented entrepreneurs and enable them to build innovative technology solutions that are scalable and competitive at the global stage.”