Singapore property tycoon Kishin RK to open 1,000 cloud kitchens across Asia, Europe, US

The 36-year-old heir to a multibillion-dollar property empire is looking to crack a home-delivery dining market that is booming amid the pandemic

His company TiffinLabs plans to have more than 30 restaurant concepts serving over 15 cuisines in at least 10 countries within the next 12 months

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Packed lunch boxes ready for delivery are seen near a food stall in Singapore earlier this year. Photo: AFP

Published: 10:55am, 21 Jul 2020Updated: 11:12am, 21 Jul 2020

Of all the ways our lives have changed during the coronavirus pandemic, few are as obvious as how, and where, we eat.

With restaurants either closed or reopening with vastly reduced capacity, and people staying home as second-wave outbreaks erupt, demand for food-delivery services has exploded.

Now Kishin RK, the 36-year-old heir to a multibillion-dollar Singapore property empire, is joining the fray, creating a network of 1,000 “cloud kitchens” across Asia, Europe and the United States to crack the lucrative home-delivery dining market. Globally, cloud kitchen revenue is estimated to climb to almost US$72 billion by 2027 from US$43 billion last year, according to Allied Market Research.

Also known as dark or shared kitchens, these centralised operations can pump out an array of cuisines for established restaurants looking to broaden their delivery footprint, or for brands that exist nowhere else but behind an app. They’ve become the go-to model for food delivery companies looking to sidestep the costs of running traditional restaurants with seating and waiters, and can be located in cheaper premises like business parks rather than high-street storefronts.

Kishin RK, founder and CEO of RB Capital. Photo: Handout

“The investment into cloud kitchens is an opportunity to look at real estate with a different lens and create revenue from a space which may not be as relevant any more,” said Kishin, who founded TiffinLabs with three partners in early 2019, naming it after the Indian lunches delivered by the nation’s army of so-called dabbawalas.

Kishin runs RB Capital, a privately owned property firm which together with his father Raj Kumar’s Royal Holdings, owns 13 office towers, malls and hotels in Singapore, including the recently refurbished 225-room InterContinental Robertson Quay.