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title: Up in the Cloud Kitchens
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This week: food insecurity is a bigger problem than energy, Uber Eats launches pilot autonomous food delivery services, and more.

| View in browser MAY 19, 2022 In the news 🛒 Digital aisles have changed how we shop and consume food forever. For its 10th anniversary, Instacart outlined what they think are the biggest trends, including sparkling water, using TikTok in the kitchen and  plant-based foods (beyond meat), among others. - Instacart (Blog) 🌾 Food insecurity is a bigger problem than energy. Governments have been spending a lot of resources to mitigate the impact of rising energy prices. Rising food prices might be a bigger problem, especially for emerging markets. - Financial Times 🚚 Uber Eats launches pilot autonomous food delivery services in California using sidewalk robots. The pilot program rolled out in two cities, Santa Monica and West Hollywood. Uber now has two autonomous delivery services using cars and sidewalk robots. - Reuters   Latest foodtech deals Select deals from last week: 🇦🇪 Kitopi, a UAE-based cloud kitchen startup, extended its Series C from July last year by $300M. This round, which was led by SoftBank, brings Kitopi's valuation to $1.6B.   Launched in 2018, Kitopi's business boomed during the pandemic with the surge of takeaway orders, but they've also worked hard to support dine-in or traditional restaurants. In the past couple of months, it has been heavily investing in brands such as Right Bite, Under 500 and Ichiban.   We've track 48 other startups working on cloud kitchen models. 👈 🇺🇸 Vestaron Corporation, a Michigan-based crop protection company, raised $82M in Seriec C funding.  The company develops an alternative to the chemical pesticides. Its biopesticide has been cleared for usage in Mexico and is in the process to become FDA-approved in the USA. Other notable foodtech deals from around the globe:    🇮🇸 Good Good, a marketplace for no-sugar-added products, raised $20M to invest in product innovation and expansion in the USA. 🇮🇪 Buymie, a Dublin-based sameday grocery delivery service, raised €7M to expand across the UK. 🇺🇸 Full Harvest, a B2B marketplace for surplus food, raised $5M in Series B funding at $115M valuation.   Read up on all the latest foodtech deals in Dealroom.co   Tip of the week   🎉 Dealroom's 2022 Investor Rank is officially out! Don't miss out on our ranking of the world’s most prominent venture capital investors. Based on Dealroom data, this list is first and foremost a practical tool for startups and LPs to assess what leading VCs have been up to, and visa-versa, for VCs to reflect on how they’ve been supporting startups in the past 12 months.   Click here and discover the top VCs per region. 👈   Dive in   🗺️ Foodtech investment heatmap 🎓 Foodtech university spinouts 🦄 110+ Foodtech unicorns and $1B+ exits     Ivan Draganov Senior Innovation Analyst Dealroom Not a subscriber yet? Subscribe here This is Dealroom's weekly Foodtech newsletter. Get more industry-specific intelligence on the evolving world of Foodtech, emerging trends, and game-changing startups. Delivered on Tuesdays. Dealroom.co, Cornelis Dirkszstraat 27-2, 1056 TP, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Manage preferences |
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