Business of Renting Kitchen Space Heats Up in China
- Beijing-based Panda Selected raises $50 million in financing
- Travis Kalanick’s CloudKitchens is reportedly eyeing China
An employee carries a stack of bamboo steamer baskets as cooks make xiaolongbao dumplings in the kitchen at a restaurant in Shanghai.
Photographer: Qilai Shen/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
In China’s biggest cities, restaurants are struggling to satisfy the appetites of customers ordering food delivery through apps on their phones. That’s leading to a booming market for renting kitchen space, without tables, chairs or waiters.
One shared kitchen startup, Panda Selected, plans to announce on Friday a $50 million investment from a group of international backers. The Beijing-based company is snapping up real estate to get ahead of local rivals and a deep-pocketed competitor from Los Angeles run by Travis Kalanick, the billionaire co-founder of Uber Technologies Inc.