5-622-027
REV: FEBRUARY 13, 2025
TEACHING NOTE
Kitopi: The Brave New World of Cloud Kitchens
Case Synopsis
Cofounded by Mohamad (Mo) Ballout in 2018, Dubai-based Kitopi was a managed cloud kitchen
platform that helped restaurants scale food delivery operations more effectively. A predominantly
business-to-business (B2B) company, Kitopi licensed menus and prepared food for an amalgam of
restaurants through its network of central and satellite kitchens. The company worked closely with
restaurants to refine their menus to be more suitable for online delivery and managed interactions with
food delivery platforms. Food delivery platforms accepted online orders through their applications,
routed the orders to Kitopi, and assigned drivers to provide last mile delivery. Kitopi kitchens
aggregated orders across multiple restaurant brands, improving driver utilization and addressing a
key pain point for delivery platforms. Kitopi received full payment from customers, paid 8% in
royalties to restaurants, and passed on a ~25% commission to food delivery platforms. To improve
efficiency in its operations, Kitopi experimented with new kitchen designs and integrated technology
throughout its processes to facilitate process control, space optimization, inventory tracking, and waste
minimization. The scale achieved by onboarding more restaurants helped Kitopi increase efficiency
throughout its supply chain, improve margins, and make food delivery operations more profitable.
As the COVID-19 pandemic left dine-in restaurant operations strained and accelerated demand for
food delivery, Kitopi found itself facing a swath of new opportunities. In 2021, the company, which
had more than 2,200 employees across three geographical locations, aimed to double its number of
kitchens to take advantage of growing demand. It also took over operations and helped struggling
restaurants go virtual, offering a further avenue for rapid expansion. Kitopi had already been
experimenting with other avenues for growth: its direct-to-consumer (D2C) super brand Mix ’N’ Match
had been active on delivery platforms in the UAE since 2018; it had launched a D2C calorie-counted-
meal-plan subscription and grocery delivery arm; and it was considering the possibility of licensing its
tech stack. Looking forward, the cofounders wondered which opportunities Kitopi should prioritize to
protect itself in a dynamic ecosystem heavily reliant on food delivery platforms. Moreover, with
increasing consolidation among food delivery platforms—which owned the customer relationship—
the executives faced questions around how the organization might defend its position from platforms
that were increasingly amassing power and investing in their own cloud kitchen operations.
,622-027 Teaching Note—Kitopi: The Brave New World of Cloud Kitchens
Teaching Objectives
The Kitopi case examines how a specialized service provider leverages digital integration to
unbundle food preparation from traditional restaurant operations, enabling restaurants to scale
delivery without expanding their own kitchen infrastructure. The case illustrates the operational
advantages that such specialized providers can offer and highlights how the availability of specialized
service providers can reshape traditional value chains.
This case has been taught at Harvard Business School and other institutions in MBA and executive
education courses focused on operations, strategy, supply chain management, and digital
transformation. It is frequently paired with “Glovo: Expanding Quick Commerce” to explore how
digital integration reshapes value chains by enabling the unbundling and rebundling of operations,
restructuring traditional industries such as food delivery and restaurants.
The case is designed to support the following objectives:
• Understand how digital integration reshapes value chains by enabling the unbundling and
rebundling of operations, fostering the rise of specialized players such as Kitopi that provide
on-demand access to critical infrastructure.
• Examine the role of specialized service providers in a digitally integrated ecosystem, focusing
on how Kitopi collaborates with restaurants and delivery platforms to optimize food
production for delivery.
• Explore the operational differences between traditional restaurant kitchens and cloud kitchens
like Kitopi, highlighting how a focused value proposition enhances efficiency and scalability.
• Assess the broader industry implications of cloud kitchens on restaurant value chains,
analyzing how digital integration lowers barriers to entry for new players such as virtual
restaurant brands, while also creating competitive tensions with partners.
• Illustrate how firms that initially benefit from unbundling may later rebundle key processes to
improve efficiency, control, or value capture, and evaluate the trade-offs of these decisions
within the restaurant value chain.
Assignment Questions
1. What has enabled the emergence of cloud kitchen players like Kitopi?
2. What are the main operational differences between meal preparation in a traditional restaurant
and meal preparation in a Kitopi kitchen?
3. How does Kitopi create value for restaurants, customers, and food delivery platforms?
4. Should Kitopi expand into B2C or remain a specialized B2B provider? What are the key trade-
offs? Should it launch its own restaurant brands?
5. What other growth opportunities should Kitopi explore?
2
,Teaching Note—Kitopi: The Brave New World of Cloud Kitchens 622-027
Related Materials
This case may be paired with other cases that focus on the digital integration of operations, the
delivery of seamless customer experiences across channels and organizations, of the design of focused
operating models. For example, the case can be taught in sequence with the following cases.
• Antonio Moreno and James Barnett, “Glovo: Expanding Quick Commerce,” HBS No. 621-094
(Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing, 2021). The Glovo case explores related issues
from the perspective of a food delivery platform, allowing a multifaceted discussion about
unbundling and rebundling in the restaurant value chain from the perspective of orchestrators
and “behind-the-scenes” specialized service providers.
• Antonio Moreno, Donald Ngwe, and George Gonzalez, “Afterpay U.S.: The Omnichannel
Dilemma,” HBS No. 519-086 (Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing, April 2019). The
Kitopi case explores the challenges involved in managing stakeholders for new entrants
seeking to create and capture value in complex value chains. To build on this concept, consider
pairing it with “Afterpay U.S.: The Omnichannel Dilemma,” which delves into similar
dynamics in a different industry, fintech. The Afterpay case exposes the challenges of digital
integration with brick-and-mortar stores operated by third parties.
• Antonio Moreno, “Zara: An Integrated Store and Online Model (A),” HBS No. 620-073 (Boston:
Harvard Business School Publishing, January 2020). Kitopi follows a company that takes
advantage of and accelerates the digitization of its value chain to create and capture value. To
build on this concept, consider pairing it with the Zara case, a case study in digital integration
of operations across channels that explores Zara’s omnichannel transformation.
• Earl W. Sasser, “Benihana of Tokyo,” HBS No. 673-057 (Boston: Harvard Business School
Publishing, November 1972). The Kitopi case can be paired with the classic case “Benihana of
Tokyo,” to drive a discussion of the evolution of the restaurant value chain over time and on
how digital integration can enable the redesign of traditional operating models. For example,
the Technology and Operations course of the Program for Leadership Development at HBS
opens with the Benihana case and finishes with Kitopi.
Related Practitioner-Oriented Publications
Depending on the focus of the course, instructors may consider using some of these related
materials to provide additional context:
• David R. Bell, Santiago Gallino, and Antonio Moreno, “How to Win in an Omnichannel
World,” MIT Sloan Management Review 56, no. 1 (Fall 2014): 45–53.
• David R. Bell, Santiago Gallino, and Antonio Moreno, “The Store is Dead — Long Live the
Store,” MIT Sloan Management Review 59, no. 3 (Spring 2018): 58–67.
• Antonio Moreno, “The New Wave of Unbundling: How Digital Interfaces are Reconfiguring
Value Chains,” Harvard Business Review, conditionally accepted, to appear in 2025.
3
, 622-027 Teaching Note—Kitopi: The Brave New World of Cloud Kitchens
Case Analysis
Introduction
The Kitopi case explores how the digital integration of operations is transforming restaurant value
chains, enabling specialized service providers to emerge and reshape industry dynamics. Kitopi
operates as a cloud kitchen platform, helping restaurant brands scale their delivery operations without
investing in physical kitchen infrastructure. Kitopi reflects a broader trend: as technology unbundles
key tasks, firms can specialize in specific parts of the value chain to drive efficiency and scalability.
The emergence of food delivery platforms such as Uber Eats and Deliveroo highlighted
inefficiencies in restaurant operations that were originally designed for dine-in services rather than
delivery. This situation presented opportunities for companies like Kitopi, which developed
technology-driven cloud kitchen networks that are fully integrated with food delivery platforms and
can prepare food for delivery on behalf of restaurant brands.
When evaluating whether Kitopi’s model is superior to a traditional restaurant kitchen –or even to
a restaurant that separates dine-in and delivery operations—several advantages become apparent.
Kitopi leverages economies of scale by consolidating food production for multiple brands within a
single facility, standardizing workflows, and sharing resources to adapt to demand fluctuations. By
optimizing every aspect of food preparation specifically for delivery, Kitopi achieves higher levels of
efficiency, speed, and consistency compared to traditional restaurant kitchens.
In addition to efficiency gains, the existence of specialized service providers like Kitopi transforms
the traditional restaurant value chain. Digitally integrated cloud kitchens and food delivery platforms
lower barriers to entry for new market participants, allowing individuals and businesses to establish
delivery-only restaurants brands. These entrants can focus on menu design and branding while
outsourcing other tasks, such as food preparation, staffing, procurement, and delivery operations, to
specialized services like Kitopi and food delivery platforms.
Furthermore, students observe that specialized service providers can subsequently rebundle tasks
and discuss whether Kitopi should introduce its own restaurant brands. This raises important
considerations: owning its own brands would allow Kitopi to optimize production processes in its
kitchens, free from the constraints of restaurant partners’ menus. However, this approach would
require substantial investment in brand and menu development and could potentially alienate
restaurant partners, who might be less willing to share their recipes and partner with Kitopi. Similarly,
food delivery platforms could venture into the cloud kitchen space by integrating food preparation
into their existing infrastructure.
These discussions highlight a broader pattern: firms that initially benefit from unbundling may later
rebundle key processes to increase efficiency, control, and compete more effectively, sometimes
competing directly with their former partners.
This case analysis is structured into the following sections to equip instructors with relevant context
on both the case and the key principles it illustrates:
• Digital Integration in Restaurant Operations: Bridging Online and Offline: It examines how
technology connects digital platforms with physical food production, reshaping restaurant
operations.
4
REV: FEBRUARY 13, 2025
TEACHING NOTE
Kitopi: The Brave New World of Cloud Kitchens
Case Synopsis
Cofounded by Mohamad (Mo) Ballout in 2018, Dubai-based Kitopi was a managed cloud kitchen
platform that helped restaurants scale food delivery operations more effectively. A predominantly
business-to-business (B2B) company, Kitopi licensed menus and prepared food for an amalgam of
restaurants through its network of central and satellite kitchens. The company worked closely with
restaurants to refine their menus to be more suitable for online delivery and managed interactions with
food delivery platforms. Food delivery platforms accepted online orders through their applications,
routed the orders to Kitopi, and assigned drivers to provide last mile delivery. Kitopi kitchens
aggregated orders across multiple restaurant brands, improving driver utilization and addressing a
key pain point for delivery platforms. Kitopi received full payment from customers, paid 8% in
royalties to restaurants, and passed on a ~25% commission to food delivery platforms. To improve
efficiency in its operations, Kitopi experimented with new kitchen designs and integrated technology
throughout its processes to facilitate process control, space optimization, inventory tracking, and waste
minimization. The scale achieved by onboarding more restaurants helped Kitopi increase efficiency
throughout its supply chain, improve margins, and make food delivery operations more profitable.
As the COVID-19 pandemic left dine-in restaurant operations strained and accelerated demand for
food delivery, Kitopi found itself facing a swath of new opportunities. In 2021, the company, which
had more than 2,200 employees across three geographical locations, aimed to double its number of
kitchens to take advantage of growing demand. It also took over operations and helped struggling
restaurants go virtual, offering a further avenue for rapid expansion. Kitopi had already been
experimenting with other avenues for growth: its direct-to-consumer (D2C) super brand Mix ’N’ Match
had been active on delivery platforms in the UAE since 2018; it had launched a D2C calorie-counted-
meal-plan subscription and grocery delivery arm; and it was considering the possibility of licensing its
tech stack. Looking forward, the cofounders wondered which opportunities Kitopi should prioritize to
protect itself in a dynamic ecosystem heavily reliant on food delivery platforms. Moreover, with
increasing consolidation among food delivery platforms—which owned the customer relationship—
the executives faced questions around how the organization might defend its position from platforms
that were increasingly amassing power and investing in their own cloud kitchen operations.
,622-027 Teaching Note—Kitopi: The Brave New World of Cloud Kitchens
Teaching Objectives
The Kitopi case examines how a specialized service provider leverages digital integration to
unbundle food preparation from traditional restaurant operations, enabling restaurants to scale
delivery without expanding their own kitchen infrastructure. The case illustrates the operational
advantages that such specialized providers can offer and highlights how the availability of specialized
service providers can reshape traditional value chains.
This case has been taught at Harvard Business School and other institutions in MBA and executive
education courses focused on operations, strategy, supply chain management, and digital
transformation. It is frequently paired with “Glovo: Expanding Quick Commerce” to explore how
digital integration reshapes value chains by enabling the unbundling and rebundling of operations,
restructuring traditional industries such as food delivery and restaurants.
The case is designed to support the following objectives:
• Understand how digital integration reshapes value chains by enabling the unbundling and
rebundling of operations, fostering the rise of specialized players such as Kitopi that provide
on-demand access to critical infrastructure.
• Examine the role of specialized service providers in a digitally integrated ecosystem, focusing
on how Kitopi collaborates with restaurants and delivery platforms to optimize food
production for delivery.
• Explore the operational differences between traditional restaurant kitchens and cloud kitchens
like Kitopi, highlighting how a focused value proposition enhances efficiency and scalability.
• Assess the broader industry implications of cloud kitchens on restaurant value chains,
analyzing how digital integration lowers barriers to entry for new players such as virtual
restaurant brands, while also creating competitive tensions with partners.
• Illustrate how firms that initially benefit from unbundling may later rebundle key processes to
improve efficiency, control, or value capture, and evaluate the trade-offs of these decisions
within the restaurant value chain.
Assignment Questions
1. What has enabled the emergence of cloud kitchen players like Kitopi?
2. What are the main operational differences between meal preparation in a traditional restaurant
and meal preparation in a Kitopi kitchen?
3. How does Kitopi create value for restaurants, customers, and food delivery platforms?
4. Should Kitopi expand into B2C or remain a specialized B2B provider? What are the key trade-
offs? Should it launch its own restaurant brands?
5. What other growth opportunities should Kitopi explore?
2
,Teaching Note—Kitopi: The Brave New World of Cloud Kitchens 622-027
Related Materials
This case may be paired with other cases that focus on the digital integration of operations, the
delivery of seamless customer experiences across channels and organizations, of the design of focused
operating models. For example, the case can be taught in sequence with the following cases.
• Antonio Moreno and James Barnett, “Glovo: Expanding Quick Commerce,” HBS No. 621-094
(Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing, 2021). The Glovo case explores related issues
from the perspective of a food delivery platform, allowing a multifaceted discussion about
unbundling and rebundling in the restaurant value chain from the perspective of orchestrators
and “behind-the-scenes” specialized service providers.
• Antonio Moreno, Donald Ngwe, and George Gonzalez, “Afterpay U.S.: The Omnichannel
Dilemma,” HBS No. 519-086 (Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing, April 2019). The
Kitopi case explores the challenges involved in managing stakeholders for new entrants
seeking to create and capture value in complex value chains. To build on this concept, consider
pairing it with “Afterpay U.S.: The Omnichannel Dilemma,” which delves into similar
dynamics in a different industry, fintech. The Afterpay case exposes the challenges of digital
integration with brick-and-mortar stores operated by third parties.
• Antonio Moreno, “Zara: An Integrated Store and Online Model (A),” HBS No. 620-073 (Boston:
Harvard Business School Publishing, January 2020). Kitopi follows a company that takes
advantage of and accelerates the digitization of its value chain to create and capture value. To
build on this concept, consider pairing it with the Zara case, a case study in digital integration
of operations across channels that explores Zara’s omnichannel transformation.
• Earl W. Sasser, “Benihana of Tokyo,” HBS No. 673-057 (Boston: Harvard Business School
Publishing, November 1972). The Kitopi case can be paired with the classic case “Benihana of
Tokyo,” to drive a discussion of the evolution of the restaurant value chain over time and on
how digital integration can enable the redesign of traditional operating models. For example,
the Technology and Operations course of the Program for Leadership Development at HBS
opens with the Benihana case and finishes with Kitopi.
Related Practitioner-Oriented Publications
Depending on the focus of the course, instructors may consider using some of these related
materials to provide additional context:
• David R. Bell, Santiago Gallino, and Antonio Moreno, “How to Win in an Omnichannel
World,” MIT Sloan Management Review 56, no. 1 (Fall 2014): 45–53.
• David R. Bell, Santiago Gallino, and Antonio Moreno, “The Store is Dead — Long Live the
Store,” MIT Sloan Management Review 59, no. 3 (Spring 2018): 58–67.
• Antonio Moreno, “The New Wave of Unbundling: How Digital Interfaces are Reconfiguring
Value Chains,” Harvard Business Review, conditionally accepted, to appear in 2025.
3
, 622-027 Teaching Note—Kitopi: The Brave New World of Cloud Kitchens
Case Analysis
Introduction
The Kitopi case explores how the digital integration of operations is transforming restaurant value
chains, enabling specialized service providers to emerge and reshape industry dynamics. Kitopi
operates as a cloud kitchen platform, helping restaurant brands scale their delivery operations without
investing in physical kitchen infrastructure. Kitopi reflects a broader trend: as technology unbundles
key tasks, firms can specialize in specific parts of the value chain to drive efficiency and scalability.
The emergence of food delivery platforms such as Uber Eats and Deliveroo highlighted
inefficiencies in restaurant operations that were originally designed for dine-in services rather than
delivery. This situation presented opportunities for companies like Kitopi, which developed
technology-driven cloud kitchen networks that are fully integrated with food delivery platforms and
can prepare food for delivery on behalf of restaurant brands.
When evaluating whether Kitopi’s model is superior to a traditional restaurant kitchen –or even to
a restaurant that separates dine-in and delivery operations—several advantages become apparent.
Kitopi leverages economies of scale by consolidating food production for multiple brands within a
single facility, standardizing workflows, and sharing resources to adapt to demand fluctuations. By
optimizing every aspect of food preparation specifically for delivery, Kitopi achieves higher levels of
efficiency, speed, and consistency compared to traditional restaurant kitchens.
In addition to efficiency gains, the existence of specialized service providers like Kitopi transforms
the traditional restaurant value chain. Digitally integrated cloud kitchens and food delivery platforms
lower barriers to entry for new market participants, allowing individuals and businesses to establish
delivery-only restaurants brands. These entrants can focus on menu design and branding while
outsourcing other tasks, such as food preparation, staffing, procurement, and delivery operations, to
specialized services like Kitopi and food delivery platforms.
Furthermore, students observe that specialized service providers can subsequently rebundle tasks
and discuss whether Kitopi should introduce its own restaurant brands. This raises important
considerations: owning its own brands would allow Kitopi to optimize production processes in its
kitchens, free from the constraints of restaurant partners’ menus. However, this approach would
require substantial investment in brand and menu development and could potentially alienate
restaurant partners, who might be less willing to share their recipes and partner with Kitopi. Similarly,
food delivery platforms could venture into the cloud kitchen space by integrating food preparation
into their existing infrastructure.
These discussions highlight a broader pattern: firms that initially benefit from unbundling may later
rebundle key processes to increase efficiency, control, and compete more effectively, sometimes
competing directly with their former partners.
This case analysis is structured into the following sections to equip instructors with relevant context
on both the case and the key principles it illustrates:
• Digital Integration in Restaurant Operations: Bridging Online and Offline: It examines how
technology connects digital platforms with physical food production, reshaping restaurant
operations.
4
