Scaling and exiting MENA's top cloud kitchen

How an $80M Series B led to a strategic acquisition, the realities of navigating an exit, and starting fresh as a second-time founder.

Jamie Lane & Zoe O Dwyer
January 22, 2025

Hi, friends 👋

It takes a particular kind of crazy to start a company — but an even crazier kind to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and decide to do it all over again, whether your first attempt was a roaring success or a painful failure.

To do so takes extraordinary determination, perseverance, and above all else — grit. Sure, there’s clarity and wisdom that come from crossing the finish line once, but that doesn’t mean the path ahead will be easy.

Dennis Pilarinos, two-time founder of Buddybuild (acquired by Apple) and now Unblocked, put it best:

“Let’s pretend we’re in an office right now. If we shut off all the lights and had to walk through here, we'd probably bump into the desks and chairs, right? Because we don’t know where they are. But if we’ve been in here before and we shut off the lights, we probably have some sense for where things are. So the second time, you roughly know where the furniture is, but you’ll still bonk your toe on a few things.”

For first-time founders, investors, and operators, there’s so much to learn from these serial builders — missteps to avoid, strategies to emulate, and the unvarnished truths of the road less traveled.

That’s why we’re launching a new interview series: Lessons Learned. Today’s edition is the first.

We’ll be speaking to MENA-based or diasporic founders who’ve exited — successfully or not — and are now building again. We’ll ask them:

What lessons did they learn from their first time around?
What was the exit process like, and what should founders expect?
Why are they building again, and how are they approaching it differently?

For our first interview, we’re very fortunate to have spoken to a founder behind one of the largest exits in MENA in recent years. 👇

Even a casual glance at Khalid Baareh’s resumé reveals he’s a rare breed of founder. Born in the US and raised in Jordan, Khalid left home at 17 to spend a decade back in the US. He then moved to Dubai and after a stint in consulting, built a successful career in private equity.

Over his career, Khalid led around $650 million in professional investments across tech, e-commerce, education, healthcare, and more. In 2011, he began investing personally, completing around 20 investments by 2019.

Having guided others through their startup journeys, Khalid decided it was time to walk the founder’s path himself. In 2018, alongside Kareem Abughazaleh, he co-founded cloud kitchen operator, iKcon.

Fast forward three years, through a global pandemic and $32 million raised, iKcon’s $80 million Series B fundraise led to its acquisition by REEF Technology, North America’s largest cloud kitchen outfit.

But Khalid wasn’t done. In August 2024, he raised a $6 million Seed round for his next venture, MealPlanet — a foodtech startup focused on meal plan delivery 🥙

📖 Here’s what you can expect in today’s interview:

⏪ Reflection: What worked, what didn’t, and what to do differently

What Khalid learned about great founders from his years as an investor.
Scaling a cloud kitchen platform from inception to exit in just 3 years.
Raising a $20M Series A at the height of the pandemic — and the 3 rules Khalid now lives by.

💰 Exiting: The process, advice for founders, and the aftermath

How an $80M Series B turned into a strategic acquisition.
Why having a transparent, aligned board is a game-changer during an exit.

👷‍♂️ Building again: The why, what’s different, and what’s next

Solving consumer frustrations with a fresh approach to meal planning.
Raising a $6M Seed round and the role of strategic angel investors.
Creating a lifestyle solution by integrating food, fitness, and data.

Actionable insights 🧠 🛠️

If you only have a few minutes to spare, here are a few of the tactical takeaways from our interview with Khalid — from a building perspective.

Treat your board as a strategic asset. Transparency and proactive communication…

Actionable insights are for paid subscribers only.

Get smarter with acess to the strategies, tactics, and wisdom of MENA's best investors and founders.

Okay, let’s dig into it 👇

#lessonslearned

Reflection: what worked, what didn’t, and what you’d do differently

Jamie

Khalid, let’s kick things off with a brisk walk down memory lane. Can you tell me a little about your background, your family, and growing up?

5:05 PM ✓

Khalid

Sure. I studied engineering in Texas, and right after college, I joined Accenture in management consulting. I worked there for five years before deciding to move to Dubai in 2006. So, I’ve been here for 18 years now, and I absolutely love it.

I then shifted from management consulting to private equity, and I stayed in that space until 2018. Along the way, I did my MBA at LBS from 2009 to 2011. After that, I got hooked on venture capital.

Since then, I’ve personally made around 20 investments. I used my private equity experience to focus on growth, identify risks early, mitigate those risks, and establish an exit structure from day one. That’s a key principle in private equity, and I found it fascinating how applicable it is to startups.

When I first started investing, my top priority was always the founder. No matter how attractive the idea, the market, or how genius the concept was, if I didn’t believe in the founder’s ability to deliver, I wouldn’t invest. I focused on backing the right founders, and in many cases, I worked closely with them. In others, they were already doing very well on their own.

My first significant investment was in Mumzworld, where I sat on the advisory board for a long time until its exit. I learned a lot from Mona and the team—it was an incredible experience.

I’ve invested across various sectors—edtech, proptech, real estate, production, manufacturing, F&B, and hospitality. Then in 2018, I became fascinated by the cloud kitchen model. I thought it was a brilliant idea, especially as it started to grow globally.

5:07 PM ✓

Jamie

Did you always know you wanted to be an entrepreneur, or was it something that developed through your experiences in private equity or angel investing?

Or was it an itch you always had, something you felt you needed to scratch?

5:08 PM ✓

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