Microsoft may have invested in Kalanick's CloudKitchens

8 Sep 2022 , 08:23 AM

According to a Financial Times REPORT, Microsoft is believed to have supported Travis Kalanick, the co-founder and former CEO of Uber, in his “dark kitchen” firm, CloudKitchens.

An $850 million fundraising round for CloudKitchens that ended in November 2021 included the investment. According to the study, CloudKitchens has been able to accelerate its global growth since obtaining the infusion of funds and currently employs over 4,000 people in the US, Latin America, the UK, and the Middle East.

By purchasing or renting warehouse space, CloudKitchens transforms these facilities into dark kitchens that can be used by restaurants to prepare food for delivery services like DoorDash and UberEats.

After being fired from Uber in June 2017 due to a string of scandals, Kalanick acquired City Storage Systems, the owner of CloudKitchens, in 2019.

When Uber was valued at about $50 billion in 2015, Microsoft made an investment of about $100 million in the ride-hailing service. However, Microsoft looks to stand out from other illustrious Silicon Valley investors that have previously backed the controversial entrepreneur with its choice to once again support Kalanick, whose retirement from Uber was driven by a series of ethical scandals and managerial errors.

The Financial Times investigation claims that CloudKitchens previously struggled with many of the same cultural challenges that were present at Uber and were suffering from high attrition as a result.

Given the risk of being associated with a person as contentious as Kalanick, it is unclear why Microsoft is interested in CloudKitchens. Microsoft’s investment might be a component of a business deal involving its cloud computing service Azure; such a deal is typical in the sector.

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