Chef Robotics raises $20.6M for industrial cooking robots
Chef Robotics has secured a $20.6M Series A led by Avataar Venture Partners, with participation from Kleiner Perkins and Bloomberg Beta, to support its robotic industrial cooking solutions.
Retail Industry News — Wednesday, September 16, 2026
Wednesday, September 16, 2026
Wonder raises $650M to expand food halls and robotics
Wonder, the parent company of Blue Apron and Grubhub, closed a $650 million Series D round at a $9 billion pre-money valuation to fund its expansion into food halls, marketplaces, and automated kitchen technologies.
ShopMy raises $70M to expand creator commerce infrastructure
ShopMy secured $70 million in funding at a $1.5 billion valuation to support its affiliate infrastructure connecting over 185,000 creators.
r4 Technologies launches agentic execution layer for retail operations
r4 Technologies has introduced XEM Actus, a framework that coordinates replenishment, allocation, and pricing from demand signals and routes actions for human approval.
AI planogram verification claims 15% sales lift per shelf meter
Leafio’s Shelf Efficiency platform uses AI image recognition to verify store planogram execution in real time, reporting a 15% increase in sales per meter of shelf.
Retail media overtakes linear and connected TV in global ad spend
Retail media reached $196.7 billion in global ad spend in 2026, surpassing the combined total of linear and connected television.