Saman Darkan

<p>Saman Darkan is a technology entrepreneur and the Co-Founder and Chief Product &amp; Technology Officer (CPTO) of Kitopi, one of the Middle East's most prominent unicorns and the world's leading managed cloud kitchen platform. He is widely credited as the technical architect behind Kitopi's tech-enabled multi-brand restaurant ecosystem.</p><p>Darkan attended <strong>California State University</strong>, where he built the foundation for a career in software engineering and digital transformation. Prior to co-founding Kitopi, Saman served as the Director of Digital Transformation at ARC International, where they were responsible for overseeing the implementation of cutting-edge technologies and optimizing business processes. His earlier roles included a position as Manager of Business Solutions at ARC International Architects and Engineers, where he developed expertise in enterprise systems, process optimization, and software architecture.</p><p>In January 2018, he co-founded Kitopi alongside Mohamad Ballout, Bader Ataya, and Andy Arenas. Mohamad Ballout brought Saman Darkan (chief technology officer), Andy Arenas (chief property officer) and Bader Ataya (chief growth officer) to co-found Kitopi. The founding insight was that traditional restaurants struggle with scalability, much like confectionery brands once did before centralized manufacturers existed.</p><p>Darkan's pivotal contribution was the realization that off-the-shelf software could not support the operational complexity of running multiple restaurant brands from shared kitchens. Saman Darkan spoke openly about how using off-the-shelf solutions almost sunk them as a company. This forced them to build a system called smart kitchen operating system and they grew from there.</p><p>His vision for Kitopi has consistently been technology-first. "We see ourselves as a consumer business and we use technology in many ways," says Darkan. "We built this democratised infrastructure where we have the kitchens and supply chains already in place, technology in the kitchen, the labour and trained specialists in place and we're enabling people to tap into that to scale, which in many ways is what AWS does for websites and e-commerce businesses."</p><p>Under his leadership, Kitopi has scaled to over 100 brands and 5,000+ employees across five GCC markets, with engineering operations centered in Krakow, Poland and a robotics hub in Odense, Denmark. He was selected as an <strong>Endeavor Entrepreneur</strong> alongside his co-founders in recognition of their high-impact entrepreneurship.</p><p>Darkan is an active voice in the regional tech and entrepreneurship community, frequently speaking at events including the Sharjah Entrepreneurship Festival, AI Elevate (Museum of the Future, Dubai), and OMGKRK in Krakow. He emphasizes that Kitopi remains, at its core, a food and people business — with technology serving as an enabler rather than the end product.</p>