Toronto tech leaders reflect on 10 years of building Uber Eats

Leaders who guided Uber Eats in Toronto describe its path from a 2015 lunchtime experiment to a national platform; the article reports the service now operates in more than 400 Canadian cities and has processed over one billion orders.

Uber Eats began in Toronto as an internal experiment in 2015 and later became a standalone app after a concentrated build. Toronto teams tested early concepts such as Uber Eats Instant and handled unexpectedly high demand when the app launched. Successive general managers focused on proving unit economics, building repeatable processes, and expanding the service across Canada. The pandemic accelerated adoption and prompted rapid feature and category expansion. Key facts: - Uber tested food delivery in Toronto in 2015 with a small team called Uber Everything and an experiment named Uber Eats Instant. - A 100-day sprint at the Toronto office produced a standalone Uber Eats app that launched in December 2015 and saw demand exceed expectations. - In 2016 the Toronto team worked to prove the business model's sustainability, standardized restaurant fees, and drove rapid expansion, including a coordinated rollout into 30 cities in one day. - From 2019 leaders focused on scalable systems, co-marketing programs, and regular operating rhythms to manage supply, demand, and service levels across many cities. - During the 2020 pandemic the platform quickly onboarded restaurants, introduced features like contactless delivery and pickup options, and expanded into groceries and retail. - The article reports Uber Eats now operates in more than 400 Canadian cities, reaches over 85 percent of the population, and has processed over one billion orders. Summary: Toronto's early experimentation, systemization, and rapid scaling in the city are described as foundational to how Uber Eats grew in Canada and influenced global operations. The article reports that this work supported expansion into retail categories and broad geographic coverage across the country. Undetermined at this time.