This Fintech wants to become the financing ‘backbone’ for ghost kitchens

• Ghost Financial is a startup founded by one of Apple’s early app developers, John Meyer.
• The startup offers financing, insurance and education classes to ghost kitchen operators.
• The tech entrepreneur, 27, also launched a ghost brand called Keto Kitchen during the pandemic.

Silicon Valley knows John Meyer, a tech entrepreneur, as a pioneering Apple app developer who wrote about 40 apps as an independent software engineer, including the first flashlight application for the iPhone. At 19, he turned down a job at Apple because his passions extended beyond the company’s boardroom.

Meyer considers himself a futurist who creates and invests in disruptive businesses—from Homebound, a technology-driven homebuilder, to Keto Kitchen, a diet-focused virtual restaurant. The latter led to his next startup: Ghost Financial.

Operating Keto Kitchen from a CloudKitchens facility in Austin, Texas, taught Meyer valuable lessons as a first-time operator. He launched Ghost Financial in April to help other restaurant operators navigate the nascent and complicated ghost kitchen. Ghost Financial offers restaurant operators expansion loans, insurance, educational classes and payroll services.

“We’re essentially the only players in the room who know how to underwrite the ghost kitchen,” Meyer told Insider.

The 27-year-old Meyer admits that his latest move is also motivated by a clear market opportunity. Euromonitor estimates that the ghost kitchen and virtual branding industry will reach $1 trillion by 2030.

Ghost Financial, which has raised $2.5 million to date, cut its largest financing deal with Cruising Kitchens, a ghost kitchen startup operator, in July. Ghost Financial gave the company, which makes mobile ghost-kitchen trailers, a $100,000 expansion loan.

Cruising Kitchens previously supplied food trailers to Reef Technology, an operator struggling with ghost kitchens. After Reef cut operations and staff in May, Cruising Kitchens decided to strike out on its own with funding from Ghost Financial.

Cameron Davies, managing director of Cruising Kitchens, told Insider that the funding is helping his company launch the new ghost kitchen operation. He bills it as a “one-stop shop” for ghost kitchen operators. Services include securing trailers, permits and leasing for franchisees or restaurants looking for a mobile ghost kitchen.

Davies said the Ghost Financial deal allows Cruising Kitchens to become “a titan in this space” with a focus on working with “all brands at the enterprise level.”

“We will do everything except operate the unit,” said Davies, whose company manufactured the Wendy’s trailers for Reef.

On Wednesday, Wendy’s said it would scale back expansion plans with Reef during an earnings call.

The fintech startup offers cash rewards and educational courses

Ghost Financial does more than lend money. The fintech startup also sells advice.

In June, Ghost Financial launched GhostU, an online program to help train ghost kitchen operators. Meyer based the classes on his experience running Keto Kitchen, which he opened in January 2021. Meyer said Keto Kitchen became “the most successful kitchen in the CloudKitchens facility, by sales, within months of opening.”

The 12-episode tutorial provides a playbook for newbies in the space—from explaining how to optimize revenue through delivery apps and social media to developing viral menu items and negotiating leases.

“There is not enough attention on the critically needed education on how to build a ghost kitchen restaurant successfully and profitably,” Meyer said.

Ghost Financial also plans to help operators by launching a credit card that gives them cash back when they use the card to pay for food supplies.

When it launches in 2023, restaurant operators using the card will receive a minimum of 1% cash back. It adds up, Meyer said, when you consider the thousands of dollars restaurant owners pay for food and restaurant supplies each month. He said the company has about 1,000 restaurants on a waiting list ready to use the card when it launches next year.

By providing the “economic backbone” for the space, Meyer said his startup will help ghost kitchens thrive.

With the help of automation, he predicts ghost kitchens will be a more cost-effective dining solution for consumers in five years.

“If you look at 2027 and ask me what a classic day in the life of an American looks like, I think cooking will be optional,” Meyer told Insider. “There will be less brick-and-mortar, retail-based grocery stores and a lot more ghost kitchens.”