Ghost Kitchens, a cloud kitchen incubator, has announced its acquisition of Speak Burgers, a gourmet cloud kitchen startup owned by celebrity chef Vicky Ratnani. The deal is aimed at enabling Ghost Kitchens to expand its offerings to the premium segment, catering to high-spending customers. The acquisition will also help Ghost Kitchens to create a range of premium food delivery brands that operate on popular platforms such as Swiggy and Zomato.
As part of the deal, Ratnani will be joining Ghost Kitchens as the Chief Culinary Officer and Co-founder. The company has also announced plans to launch three new brands in partnership with Ratnani, targeting both the mass premium and cloud kitchen categories. This move is aimed at enabling Ghost Kitchens to scale its offerings and add an additional 400 fulfilment partners over the next three years.
Karan Tanna, Founder and CEO of Ghost Kitchens, said “With our presence in 40 cities, we have gaps in supply of premium brands, which we will quickly fill through this collaboration.”
Ghost Kitchens, which was founded in 2019 by Jayendra Vandravandas Tanna and Karan Tanna, operates a fund and an incubator that is solely focused on cloud kitchens. The company currently works with 160 fulfilment partners in around 40+ cities for its own portfolio of brands. Its portfolio includes popular brands such as Wakka Wakka, Biryani Hazir Ho, Momo Guy, Starboy Pizza And Shakes, and Maa Ki Khichdi, among others. The company claims to have more than 1,200 digital-focussed restaurants in 42 cities across the country.
At the end of December 2022, Ghost Kitchens had an annual GMV run rate of INR 60 Cr. The startup aims to scale its offerings to more than 4,000 internet restaurants in the next one year and is targeting an annual run rate of INR 500 Cr by the end of 2024. In October 2022, the company announced plans to invest INR 50 Cr over the next one year to scale operations.
Speak Burgers, on the other hand, plans to scale its presence to more than 200 locations in the next three years through fulfilment partner programmes. So far, the startup has raised $1.2 Mn across two funding rounds from investors such as Yuj Ventures, Dholakia Ventures, and Salarpuria Family office, among others.
The cloud kitchen domain is populated by big names such as Rebel Foods, FreshMenu, Box8, and Faasos, among others. According to a report, the homegrown cloud kitchen market was valued at $400 Mn at the end of 2019, and it is projected to grow to $2 Bn by 2024. The acquisition of Speak Burgers is expected to help Ghost Kitchens to capture a significant share of this market and establish itself as a leading player in the cloud kitchen space.