Best Food Tech Companies in Shanghai, China
The 46 best Food Tech companies in Shanghai, China in 2026, ranked by funding and momentum. Funding, investors, founders, valuation, tech stack and live signals. Top: Ele.me.
Our analysis of 100 Food Tech companies
$12.9b in tracked funding; 88% of the stack-profiled cohort runs cloud-native; funding activity peaked in 2025.
Ranked: Best Food Tech companies in Shanghai
| # | Company | Disclosed funding | Last round | Stage | Employees | Founder | Founded | Recent signals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 17Hi Smartphone application to discover bars | — | — | Deadpooled | — | Rubin Quach Founder & CEO | 2016 | — |
| 2 | Acorn International Internet-first restaurant delivering meals | — | — | Funding Raised | — | Jake Fisch CEO | 1998 | — |
| 3 | Best Cake Internet first bakery in China | — | — | Deadpooled | 601 | — | 1999 | — |
| 4 | Bestaurant Mobile app to find restaurants nearby | — | — | Deadpooled | 4 | — | 2015 | — |
| 5 | Bon App Online platform for restaurant discovery | — | — | Unfunded | — | Stone Shi stone column Founder & CEO | 2013 | — |
| 6 | ChiShenMa Food discovery on mobile | — | — | Deadpooled | 47 | — | 2014 | — |
| 7 | Dive Geo-based application for food lovers | — | — | Deadpooled | — | Kamilla Fa Founder & CEO | 2016 | — |
| 8 | FoodChains Provider of blockchain-powered loyalty management solutions for restaurants | — | — | Deadpooled | — | Clement Lee Co-Founder & CEO | 2018 | — |
Top 12 Food Tech companies in Shanghai
#1
Series A · Minhang, Shanghai · founded 2020 · 40 employees$25.7Mraised▾
Company develops cell-cultivated meat products. The company has created lab-grown meat kebabs and tofu with minced lab-grown meat. The company also developed cell-cultivated beef products using 3D bioprinting technology.
- Jun 2023Series A$6.5M
- Feb 2022Series A$14.8M
- Sep 2021Series A$4.3M
- Dec 2020Seed$50K
#2
Seed · Shanghai, Shanghai · founded 2022$700Kraised▾
Provider of plant and mycelium-based ready meals for a healthy and sustainable diet. It is an alternative protein company that focuses on plant and mycelium-based ready meals.
- Feb 2024Seed$700K
#3
Ele.me 🦄Acquired · Shanghai, Shanghai · founded 2008 · 10000 employees$2.8Braised▾
Ele.me is an app-based food ordering and delivery platform. The users can discover foods from nearby restaurants and delivers them through their own logistic team. It also allows customers to track their food orders in real-time. Provides a mobile application available for both Andriod and iOS users.
- Feb 2018Series G$200M
- May 2017Series G$15.9M
- Apr 2016Series G$1.2B
- Nov 2015Series F—
#4
Series D · Pudong, Shanghai · founded 2009 · 40 employees$31.6Mraised▾
Manufactures and supplies smart kitchen appliances. Its product offerings include an intelligent rice pressure cooker and induction cooker. The appliances can be connected to a mobile app to cook automatically by scanning the rice. The system is integrated with 3000 types of rice recipes. Its app is available for Android, and iOS platforms.
- May 2021Series D$17.1M
- Sep 2018Series C$14.6M
- May 2018Series C—
- 2016Series B—
#5
Acquired · Shanghai, Shanghai · founded 2013 · 38 employees$162Mraised▾
Local life marketing platform for restaurants, driving customer acquisition and growth. This platform specializes in providing comprehensive new media marketing services to empower restaurants with digital operations. It helps businesses achieve all-channel exposure, acquire customers efficiently, and build lasting relationships with consumers to boost offline traffic. Services include live streaming, traffic matrix strategies, short video production and promotion, and influencer marketing. The platform establishes a complete lead generation path with effect monitoring for sustainable growth. It connects with major traffic platforms, enhances conversion capabilities, and offers detailed data reports for user management. Content creation, influencer outreach, private domain marketing, live streaming, and in-store traffic guidance are all part of the service. It also provides marketing effect monitoring, coupon transactions, in-store verification, and activity collaboration to engage and incentivize users. The platform offers tailored marketing solutions, online real-time management, and expert consulting to drive business success. It provides app, mini program access for online prod
- May 2018Series D$63M
- Jan 2017Series C—
- Oct 2015Series C$79M
- Nov 2014Series B$20M
#6
Seed · Shanghai, Shanghai · founded 2020 · 20 employees$3.5Mraised▾
Provider of plant-based protein alternative products. The company uses peanut protein as a base for a strong and elastic texture and natural umami flavor for developing plant-based chicken.
- Apr 2022Seed$3.5M
- 2020Seed—
#7
Series A · Shanghai, Shanghai · founded 2020 · 50 employees$8.8Mraised▾
Platform offering plant-based meat products. The product is used for making meatballs, meatloaf with ingredients such as starch, crushed potatoes, and chickpea. Its ingredients include soy protein, split roasted chickpeas, and more. The company claims the product contains no preservative and artificial flavors.
- May 2021Series A$7.3M
#8
Series B · Shanghai, Shanghai · founded 2016$40Mraised▾
Magic Box Citybox provides smart vending machines for offline retailers. The machines can be programmed by store owners to carry out loyalty programs including discounts and other incentives, display targeted user ads and carry out upselling activities. Each machine is equipped with mobile payments, task management and control facilities.
- May 2018Series B$25M
- Sep 2017Series A$15M
#9
Series C · Shanghai, Shanghai · founded 2010 · 2000 employees$54.7Mraised▾
Shenghuo Banjing (SHBJ) is a B2B delivery services provider. It provides delivery services with a fleet of about 2000 employees in 11 Chinese cities and plans to expand to 30 cities by the end of 2015. In Aug 2015, it received funding from Alibaba's Koubei (a marketplace for local lifestyle businesses). Its delivery team is split between full-time and part-time staff, unlike Ele.me, which primarily follows a marketplace model (Uber model). Planning to expand beyond food and include groceries, convenience store items, fruit, vegetables, fresh flowers, etc.
- Sep 2015Series C$46.9M
- Dec 2014Series B$7.8M
- Dec 2012Series A—
#10
Acquired · Shanghai, Shanghai · founded 2010 · 92 employees$50Mraised▾
Daojia is a B2C food delivery services that partners with local restaurants and shops. Daojia has its own fleet of delivery boys. As of July 2015, Daojia covers the urban areas in 30 cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou. Has partnered with more than 3,000 restaurants. It employs more than 1,000 delivery staff nationwide.
- Sep 2014Series D$50M
- Sep 2013Series C—
- Jul 2011Series B—
- Apr 2010Series A—
#11
Series B · Shanghai, Shanghai · founded 2014 · 400 employees$17.3Mraised▾
Online platform for ordering food. It is a platform where users can order different types of food like Mustard green pork, Braised duck yuba, pickles and chicken.
- Oct 2018Series B$17.3M
- Series A—
- Angel—
#12
Series A · Shanghai, Shanghai · founded 2016$5.8Mraised▾
Developer of artificial intelligence systems for automated security baggage screening. These systems utilize deep learning algorithms to analyze X-ray imagery for the detection of prohibited items. The technology identifies various objects including weapons and hazardous liquids by processing visual data in real time. Automated sorting functions assist personnel in managing baggage flow and verifying contents. The software integrates with existing scanning hardware to facilitate monitoring and tracking of items during the inspection process.
- Jun 2019Series A$5.8M
Funding & investor landscape
Notable founders
Market landscape — 10 sub-themes by coverage
Share of Food Tech coverage by sub-theme.
Regulatory-risk over time rising
Funding & growth over time
funding rising · growth rising
How research on Food Tech in Shanghai is moving
A read on the academic research around Food Tech in Shanghai — which themes are gaining ground, the institutions and researchers driving them, and how the tone is shifting. Based on 213 papers.
- Shanghai Ocean University60
- Shanghai Jiao Tong University38
- Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences20
- University of Shanghai for Science and Technology18
- Shanghai Municipal Center For Disease Control Prevention14
- Food safety5
- Detection limit5
- Biosensor4
- Food science4
- Food processing3
- Food industry1→4
- Food safety2→22
- Biotechnology1→6
- Mycotoxin1→4
- Food packaging1→3
- China1→3
Common questions
Rohit lives in the feed. He covers what's moving right now — the funding rounds, launches and shifts breaking across the trade press — and ties them back to where the sector is heading.