Dark kitchens do not have good links with politicians. Including in France. These kitchens are popping up everywhere and have enough to kill local businesses while making misery for local residents (because of the noise of delivery mopeds).
For restaurateurs, it’s double or nothing. And especially in the United States, with CloudKitchens company.
This company, launched by the Uber founder Travis Kalanickhas drawn the wrath of war because of its massive turnover and its new reputation for putting a spoke in the wheels of kitchen tenants before recovering their concepts when they are popular.
A former employee of the company, interviewed by the FinancialTimescriticized CloudKitchens saying that it was about “the most toxic place I’ve ever been”.
Bad behavior “tolerated and rewarded”
However, CloudKitchens manages to win the trust of investors and attract funds. In November 2021, it received a whopping $850 million to expand. Today we learn that Microsoft was among the investors.
An article from FinancialTimes reported this week, as the financing deal brought CloudKitchens to a $15 billion valuation. Microsoft is one of those companies that followed Uber by investing $100 million in 2015.
The Saudi sovereign wealth fund, which injected $3.5 billion into Uber in 2016, also joined CloudKitchens in 2019 for $400 million.
These different operations are a reminder of the extent to which American tech remains a small world and that despite the pans, some entrepreneurs can redeem themselves easily on new projects.
Recent news from WeWork founder Adam Neumann also echoes this observation. The Andreessen Horowitz (A16z) fund injected a whopping $350 million into the entrepreneur’s new project in August, even though no business model had yet been presented.
the “bad behaviour” straight white men is “not only tolerated, but rewarded” in technology, said business angel Julia Austin on August 15.
