Uber ex-chief executive Kalanick grabs a slice of India’s fast-growing cloud kitchen arena

Uber Technologies co-founder Travis Kalanick has invested in India’s largest shared-kitchen company, a person familiar with the matter said, taking his second act in business to one of the world’s fastest-growing internet arenas.

Kalanick’s real estate company, City Storage Systems, bought a small stake in Rebel Foods as part of a previously disclosed US$125 million round of funding, the person said, asking not to be identified talking about a private deal.

The entrepreneur has taken a slice of a business valued at US$525 million that delivers butter chicken and paneer-topped pizzas to millions of Indians, backed by big-name investors from Coatue Management and Goldman Sachs to Sequoia Capital and ride-hailing giant Gojek. Rebel Foods is now expanding beyond its home turf and into Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

Cloud kitchens, much like cloud computing services, have become a popular business model for food-delivery providers that want to serve up meals while skirting the expense of traditional restaurants with their associated high real estate and service staff costs. Food is prepared through a network of tightly-packed kitchen spaces in affordable locations, far from the bustling high streets that restaurant brands favour.

Kalanick, who was ousted in 2017 from the US ride-hailing leader he co-founded after a series of scandals, is making his first investment in India. Since that dramatic exit, Kalanick has set up an investment fund and charted a strategy to build a kitchen rental service – called CloudKitchens – through CSS.