Hosted Kitchens, an Ireland-based network of ghost kitchens, announced today that it has raised a €1.25 million (~$1.48M USD) Seed round of funding. In a message sent to The Spoon, Hosted Kitchens CEO Sean Murray said the round was funded by Irish private investors.
As its name suggests, Hosted Kitchens builds out multi-kitchen properties and software for other restaurants to rent to fulfill online orders. The company places its facilities in high-volume locations. Its software can process orders from multiple third-party delivery services such as Just Eat and Deliveroo.
Hosted Kitchens’ fundraise comes as the ghost kitchen space has been evolving over the past year as what a ghost kitchen is and where it’s located continues to change. For instance, third-party delivery service DoorDash expanded its own ghost kitchen program in California last week. We’re also seeing the new wave of speedy grocery delivery services like Gopuff and Food Rocket launch their own ghost kitchen programs, blurring the line between food retail and restaurant. We’ve also seen QSRs get into the ghost kitchen game with Burger King launching its own ghost kitchen in the UK. And ghost kitchens are starting to pop-up in new settings, such as C3’s move to bring ghost kitchens into residential buildings.
For it’s part, Hosted Kitchens says it will use its new funding to continue rolling out to new locations in Ireland and expand into the U.K. The company will also continue to hire out, growing its team from 4 to 20 over the next year.
