, a subscription media platform exploring the overlap of food and technology through trends like ghost kitchens, dark stores, and more.
While CloudKitchens got an early start, in 2019 a startup called ParkJockey announced that it had raised money from the sovereign wealth fund of Dubai and Softbank to roll up the two largest parking operators in North America. This built the platform for what has been rebranded as REEF Technology, a startup that operates delivery-only kitchen trailers and other micro-mobility applications on top of under-utilized parking spaces.
Despite the fact that both companies have raised large sums of capital to repurpose distressed real estate, they are quick to distinguish themselves from one another. CloudKitchens is more like an Amazon fulfillment center, while REEF is more like a 7-Eleven. A San Francisco pizzeria transformed into a ghost kitchen when the pandemic hit. Here's how they pivoted quickly and boosted sales by more than $1 million in the process.
By and large, both teams are focused on the same markets, with a high concentration of overlap in LA, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Austin, Houston, and Philadelphia.
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