Former Uber team launches 'virtual kitchen' to take on Travis Kalanick's

A new startup called Virtual Kitchen plans to announce a $15 million investment and an expansion

The small industrial kitchen located under a concrete maze of freeways in Oakland, California, doesn’t look like much. The former Uber Technologies Inc. employees who occupy the space picked it because it’s cheap (by Bay Area standards) and conveniently located for drivers to pick up food for nearby customers ordering from delivery apps like Uber Eats.

Their startup, Virtual Kitchen Co., is one of many entrants in a crowded field of companies renting kitchen space to restaurants desperate to satisfy demand from hungry homebodies. But it’s particularly noteworthy that the founders came from Uber. Travis Kalanick, Uber’s co-founder and former chief