Founded | 2015 |
---|---|
Headquarters | Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
Area served | United States |
Founder(s) |
|
Industry | Meal kit |
Employees | 375 (2024) [1] |
URL | www |
Tovala is a meal-kit and oven company based in Chicago, Illinois. It sells a series of smart ovens that combine baking, broiling, air frying, and steam cooking and which can be controlled by an app.
Tovala was co-founded in 2015 by CEO David Rabie and CTO Bryan Wilcox. It won a venture challenge at the University of Chicago. [2] Initially named Maestro and nicknamed the "Keurig for food," it launched with a Kickstarter in January 2016 that raised $256,000. [3] That year, it was also accepted into the Y Combinator accelerator program. [4] [1] [5]
Tovala launched to the general public in 2017. It also raised a $9.2 million Series A round that year, led by Origin Ventures, and acquired the Chicago-based food-delivery service Radish. [6] [7] [8] [9] In 2020, the company raised a $20 million Series B round of capital, led by Finistere Ventures and including Comcast Ventures, OurCrowd, Rich Products Ventures, Pritzker Group Venture Capital, and the University of Chicago. [10] [11] It added a $30 million Series C round in 2021, led by Left Lane Capital. [12] [13] As of 2024, it has raised a total of $68.6 million and employs about 375 people. [1]
The company has released several generations of its countertop smart ovens, most recently the Tovala Smart Oven and the Tovala Smart Oven Pro, which includes steam cooking. [14] [15] They have ranged in price from $300 to $400, which substantial discounts for customers who also sign up for the company's meal-kit service. [16]
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