Crave Hospitality Group
Ghost kitchen collective operator with proprietary management technology.
| Date | Investors | Amount | Round |
|---|---|---|---|
$7.3m | Seed | ||
| Total Funding | 000k | ||
Crave Hospitality Group, founded in 2019 by technology entrepreneur Devin Wade, chef Scott Howard, and restaurateur Barry Werner, initially operated as a ghost kitchen collective and food delivery service based in Boise, Idaho. The company's business model centered on its "Crave Collective," a large facility housing numerous individual kitchen suites for various restaurant partners to prepare delivery-only menus.
The business was powered by a proprietary technology suite for managing orders, bundling items from multiple restaurant partners, delivery logistics, and analytics. A key differentiator was its use of employee drivers, called "mobile servers," instead of gig workers, aiming to provide a higher level of customer service. The company secured $7.3 million in a seed funding round in late 2020, led by StageDotO, to fuel expansion into markets including Utah, Texas, Arizona, and Colorado.
However, as the market shifted post-pandemic and restaurants began incorporating their own delivery services, the large-scale ghost kitchen model became less viable. In November 2023, it was announced that Crave Delivery had ceased operations. The parent company, Crave Hospitality Group, has since pivoted its business model. It now licenses its proprietary technology platform and the "Crave Kitchens" brand name to other groups operating smaller, franchise versions of the original concept.
Keywords: ghost kitchen, cloud kitchen, virtual restaurants, food delivery, restaurant technology, hospitality technology, proprietary software, delivery logistics, multi-brand kitchen, restaurant management platform, food-tech, venture capital, Devin Wade, Scott Howard, Barry Werner, Crave Collective, mobile servers, order bundling