RXR Realty Ushers Food-Incubator Start-Up into New York Properties
Kitchen United is set to open a total of three kitchen centers in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Connecticut, plotting a national expansion.
NEW YORK CITY— Real estate investment company RXR Realty, along with GV, formerly known as Google Ventures, closed on a $40 million Series B fundraiser on behalf of Kitchen United, a Pasadena, Calif.-headquartered shared kitchen. The start-up will use the raised capital to open three immediate locations in the New York-tristate, and its splash into several other national cities.
Planting the flag in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Stanford, CT., Kitchen United will use RXR Realty as the vehicle to opening their kitchen centers, setting up shop in their properties. Bringing off-premise restaurant service to New York City, a primary growth market has been a key goal. RXR recognized this aspiration.
“We share Kitchen United’s vision for the future of the restaurant industry and believe the consumer shift toward off-premise dining is already having a huge impact,” says Scott Rechler, chairman & CEO of RXR Realty, in a prepared statement.
The 2017-founded start-up provides restaurateurs access to turn-key kitchen space to keep their overhead costs low, and its customers the choice to order pick-up or delivery of ready-made items.
The business proposition attracted various funds managed by Fidelity Investments Canada ULC, DivcoWest and G Squared, to its Series B fundraising. “We’re about consumer choice on every dimension, choice of cuisine and choice of where they want to consume that cuisine,” Meredith Sandland, chief operating officer at Kitchen United, tells GlobeSt.
Considered an early mover in off-premise restaurant service, Kitchen United plans to keep pace with the growth of digital delivery, according to Sandland. The sector is planned to double in the coming years. U.S. off-premise restaurant sales in 2018 were $279 billion and are expected to grow to $402 billion in 2022, according to financial research firm William Blair & Co.
“In just over two years, we have only scratched the surface on the massive opportunity for brands to serve their guests where they want to be served, which is increasingly outside their traditional four wall space,” says Jim Collins, CEO of Kitchen United, in a prepared statement.
Adding to it Pasadena and Chicago locations, Kitchen United is slated to open a location in Scottsdale, AZ. and Austin, Tex. with sites under construction in Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and several other major markets.