With options for food delivery booming, this Dubai-based startup is taking advantage of all of that demand, is now looking to raise more cash and seriously scale up.

隨著送餐服務的蓬勃發展，這家位於杜拜的新創公司利用這些需求，正在募資並擴大規模。

Moe Ballout founded KITOPI in January 2018 with one mission, to satisfy the world's appetite.

Moe Ballout 於2018年1月創立了 KITOPI。其使命只有一個，就是滿足全世界的胃口。

So how do you do that? Turns out, it's not just about food.

那麼，如何做到這一點呢？事實證明，這不只跟食物有關。

It's about data, speed and accuracy.

這也關乎數據、速度和準確性。

When we first started, I never thought that the number one problem in food is actually missing items, that you as a customer would have something missing in your order.

剛開始我從沒想過，食品配送的頭號問題竟然是缺件，也就是顧客收到的貨件有缺漏的情況。

So, it's really looking at, how do you solve the issues of quality, issues of speed, issues of availability for the delivery world.

所以一切其實是取決於配送過程中，你如何解決品質、速度和可用性問題。

Which is very different to solving it, when it  comes down to a brick-and-mortar dining business.

食品配送產業與實體餐飲企業解決這些問題的方式是非常不同的。

How many brands do you have at one time in this space?

在這個領域，你同時有多少個品牌？

So, we have 60 brands in this site, and we can have anything from 40 to 70 brands in any given sites.

我們在這個據點有 60 個品牌，而在任何的據點我們可以容納 40 到 70 個品牌。

Anything from like healthy food  brands, salad brands to burger brands, any cuisine type you can have.

無論是健康食品品牌、沙拉品牌或漢堡品牌，任何類型的美食都有。

So, this is a space of about 2,000  square feet. That's not that big, really.

這裡大約是 2000 平方英尺的空間，沒有想像中那麼大。

It's all about optimizing the space to really allow us to manage the quality and speed of preparing things.

重點在於優化空間，讓我們能管理準備商品的品質和速度。

How many meals in one day are we talking about?

這裡一天大約會處理多少訂單呢？

So, a typical kitchen of ours  does around 3,000 orders a day.

我們的廚房一般每天大約會做 3000 筆訂單。

How do you make sure that  people aren't missing items?

那麼，你如何確保不會遺漏商品呢？

So, the way it works is when the chef prepares the item, they barcode everything that comes out, and everything goes along the conveyor.

運作的方式是當廚師做好餐點後，他們會將所有東西貼上條碼，而整個流程都在輸送帶上進行。

As soon that goes out, they scan and make sure that everything's actually in that order that's meant to be in it.

當成品一送出，他們就會掃描並確保所有的東西都是按照預定的順序排列。

At what point do you think we could potentially be fully automated?

你認為什麼時候有可能實現完全自動化？

Key parts of getting into full autonomous cooking is for us to really consolidate the supply chain,  and really change cooking techniques.

要完成全自動烹飪，關鍵在於鞏固供應鏈，並真正改變烹飪的方式。

And for at least 40% of our products, we've been able to achieve that.

目前我們有至少 40% 的產品，已經達成這個目標了。

The goal is within 12 months to have a fully autonomous kitchen.

我們的目標是在 12 個月內擁有一間全自動廚房。

What's the biggest challenge in  your view in terms of that scaling?

在你看來，在這方面的拓展，最大的挑戰是什麼？

So, the complexity of being able to cook multiple different items in one kitchen with speed is a very complex problem to solve.

要能在同一個廚房內，快速烹煮多種不同類型的食物是個複雜的難題。

So, the way we like to look at a successful  order is eight minutes preparing the food, one minute packing it and driver waiting time under two minutes.

我們認為一個成功的訂單，應該是花八分鐘準備食物、一分鐘打包，而司機等待時間應該低於兩分鐘。

That's incredible.

真是不可思議。

So that's kind of the goal. Keep the whole entire experience 11 to 12 minutes, allowing the customers to get food under 30 minutes.

那是我們的目標。讓整個過程保持在11到12分鐘，並讓客人在30分鐘內拿到食物。

We've gotten really close to cracking that at scale.

我們已經很接近全面解決這個問題了。

The reality is the next big problem is to make sure drivers are not waiting for the food, and drivers are able to pick up food really fast.

實際上，下一個面臨的問題是，要確保司機不用等待，能快速地取到食物。

That's where we develop a lot more software and helping aggregators really optimize their fleets and take much more orders per hour.

所以我們開發了更多的軟體，並幫助外送平台優化他們的車隊，以便每小時承接更多訂單。

So, it's not just about being the cloud  kitchen. It's about being the smart kitchen.

所以，這不僅僅要成為雲端廚房，更是要成為智能廚房。

Exactly!

正是如此！

We would replicate exactly what you would do as a brand in any city we operate in.

作為一個品牌，我們會在所有駐點的城市完全複製這些流程。

You are the consumer, you go online, you place a $100 order and that order comes to our kitchen, we produce the foods, our staff are cooking the food using our smart kitchen operating software in our kitchens.

消費者上網下了一個 100 美元的訂單，訂單到了廚房，接著我們生產食品，我們的員工會使用智能廚房軟體在我們的廚房烹飪食物。

And then we will give you a brand royalty fee for the right to use your brand.

然後我們會給一筆商標使用費，以獲得使用品牌的權利。

Food will be ready, aggregator comes, picks  it up and delivers it to the customer.

食物準備好後，外送員來取件並送到客戶手中。

The experience of exactly replicates that of the brand.

一模一樣的品牌流程。

2020 changing the world. A global  pandemic, how has it impacted KITOPI?

2020年爆發的全球流行疾病改變了世界，它對 KITOPI 有什麼影響？

This really accelerated adoption of online ordering, and it also it really got a lot of the big brands to start accepting that change is coming.

這確實增加了網購的用量，而且也讓很多大品牌開始接受變革。

For them to really operate in a much more sustainable way, they actually have to operate differently.

為了永續經營，他們必須改變營運方式。

While it was the global pandemic that put food aggregators like Zomato and Deliveroo on the map, their popularity with consumers hasn't necessarily translated into market success.

雖然全球流行疾病將 Zomato 和 Deliveroo 等外送平台推上檯面，但他們受消費者歡迎的程度並不一定能轉化為市場上的成功。

Deliveroo launched an initial public offering in March 2021 with a $10.5 billion initial valuation.  

Deliveroo 在2021年3月首次公開募股，初始估值為105億美元。

They crashed out on the day by as much as 30%, giving London its worst IPO in history.

他們在當天崩盤將近30%，是倫敦史上最糟糕的首次公開募股。

Where are you looking for growth?

你接下來想往哪個方向擴展？

We initially started off in Dubai, expanded across the Middle East. So that's a core market for us.

我們最初在杜拜起步，並在整個中東地區擴張。所以那是我們的核心市場。

In Q4 this year we should be expanding to Southeast Asia.

在今年第四季度，我們應該會向東南亞擴展。

So there's five cities over there that we are focused on expanding through this year.

那裡有五個我們今年重點擴展的城市。

And there's a lot of other clusters of cities outside those two regions that we will expand to a later stage.

這兩個地區之外，還有很多其他的城市預計在之後的階段拓展。

When could we see KITOPI go for an IPO?

KITOPI 何時會進行首次公開募股呢？

I do think the way we see capital raising, whether privately or publicly is a means to just completely satisfy our mission.

我認為無論是私下還是公開的募資，都只是一種手段，來完成我們的目標。

And we're looking at it as just fuel for further growth.

我們把它當作是助長進步的燃料。

And it's not a particular end state and end goal for us.

但公開募股對我們來說並不是最終的目標。