Tovala is the Chicago-based maker of a countertop smart oven and meal service for busy people who want to eat well without the hassle of shopping, prepping, cooking or cleaning. So, how does it work? After purchasing the Tovala smart oven, simply select meals from the company’s website. Once the meals arrive, unbox and prepare your meal, scan the included barcode to send the cooking instructions to the oven, and let the oven do the rest. Each meal cooks in 20 minutes or less.
According to the company website, the Tovala smart oven starts at $299 (or $199 if you buy six meals). The company’s meals are priced at $11.99 per meal and arrive fresh (not frozen) at the user’s doorstep. Furthermore, the user can subscribe to receive anywhere from 3-16 meals per week. The company also offers gluten-free meals and vegetarian options.
Tovala Raises $20M
The company announced a $20M raise in June 2020. The Series B round was led by Finistere Ventures, who has a history of supporting similar food companies. Companies such as Memphis Meats (CA) and Farmer’s Fridge (IL). New investors included OurCrowd and Rich Products Ventures, while previous Tovala backers included Origin Ventures, Pritzker Group Venture Capital, Gordan Segal (Crate & Barrel founder), the University of Chicago and New Stack Ventures.
Like many startups, the inability to meet face-to-face during the pandemic complicated things for Tovala and its investors.
“This was one of the first times we actually tried to do this entire process of getting to know the people, understanding the business and the numbers, without being in person, which was a departure for us,” said Arjun Kapur during an interview with Fast Company.
The idea for Tovala stemmed from co-founder David Rabie’s experience while in grad school at the University of Chicago. As an MBA student, David found it extremely difficult to eat well considering his busy schedule. He found that there weren’t many quick and healthy options to choose from. In 2015, David teamed up with co-founder Bryan Wilcox and Tovala launched in 2017.
Before Tovala, co-founder and CTO Bryan Wilcox worked on appliances at GE and Whirlpool and earned his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois. After obtaining his PhD, Bryan then launched his own product development firm. Before teaming up with Bryan, David Rabie worked for the co-founder and CEO of Veggie Grill and ran Groovy Spoon. He also spent time working at Google and Foundation Capital.