Wonder

Marc Lore: AI Will Let Anyone Launch a Restaurant

Marc Lore, founder of Wonder, detailed plans to use AI and robotics to let anyone design and launch virtual restaurant brands using a tool called Wonder Create. Speaking at the WSJ Future of Everything conference, Lore said Wonder Create can generate a restaurant's name, branding, images, pricing, health info and recipes in under a minute; those virtual brands would then operate across Wonder’s network of tech-enabled, increasingly automated “programmable cooking platforms.” Wonder currently runs 120 such kitchen locations and expects to grow to 400 next year. The company has been expanding via acquisitions (including Spice Robotics, Grubhub and Blue Apron) and bought Blue Ribbon Fried Chicken for $6.5 million in February. Lore positioned the model as a way for creators, influencers and food entrepreneurs to monetize and experiment without building traditional chains.

Feeding Frenzy Fuels Food Media M&A

Interest in food-focused media and adjacent dining technology has accelerated, producing a wave of acquisitions and strategic moves. Recent deals include Wonder’s $90 million purchase of Tastemade, America’s Test Kitchen’s $10 million bankruptcy win for Food52, People Inc.’s acquisition of Feedfeed, Sysco’s $29 billion acquisition of Restaurant Depot, and Unilever’s agreed merger of its food business with McCormick to create a >$65 billion combined firm. BuzzFeed and Vox Media are reportedly exploring portfolio sales or divestitures (including interest in Tasty and Eater). Buyers range from food-tech platforms building vertically integrated services to retailers and financial services firms, signaling rising investor appetite for owning discovery, commerce, and branded-content touchpoints in the “dining economy.”

Gracenote Launches Ads Business to Transform CTV Advertising

Gracenote has launched a new ads business, Gracenote Ads, bringing its content metadata into the CTV advertising market. The company — which was acquired by Nielsen in 2017 and previously launched a CTV ad platform in December — appointed Bill Condon as Head of Advertising Sales to lead the effort. Gracenote Ads exposes show‑level metadata via an AI‑powered Content Connect platform and creates programmatic deal IDs through partnerships with SSP Index Exchange and major DSPs. Use cases include contextually aligning or avoiding inventory (e.g., sports or actor-centric placements) and delivering impression-level reporting. Gracenote positions its metadata as a scalable solution to improve transparency and contextual targeting in CTV, citing research that genre labels are missing from roughly 70% of bid requests.