Culinary & FoodserviceWednesday, September 16, 2026
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.
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.
ShopMy secured $70 million in funding at a $1.5 billion valuation to support its affiliate infrastructure connecting over 185,000 creators.
r4 Technologies has introduced XEM Actus, a framework that coordinates replenishment, allocation, and pricing from demand signals and routes actions for human approval.
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 reached $196.7 billion in global ad spend in 2026, surpassing the combined total of linear and connected television.
