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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

smart oven

Smart Oven and Meal Delivery Startup Tovala Raises Additional $30 Million

Tovala, a smart oven and meal delivery startup based in Chicago, announced today they have raised a $30 million series C funding round led by consumer-tech VC Left Lane Capital.

The funding round follows a $20 million series B Tovala raised last June.

So why did the company raise another huge round six months after the last one? The biggest reason, according to Tovala CEO David Rabie, was the company’s continued growth.

“The business has grown 10X over the past 18 months,” Rabie told me via Zoom this week. “A big chunk of that came pre-COVID, a big chunk came post COVID. COVID accelerated some things, but the business was already on pace to grow quickly.”

According to Rabie, the fit with Left Land Capital was another reason. Tovala felt their new lead investor, which focuses on consumer-focused Internet companies (some of the firm’s previous investments include Freshly, Farmer’s Dog and DeliveryHero), had the right expertise to help them scale.

“They have more depth of expertise in the consumer subscription space than almost anyone we’ve talked to, especially especially direct to consumer,” Rabie said. “They were really interested. At some point we were going to go raise another round, and we had gotten to know them pretty well over the course of last year, and felt like it was a great fit.”

So what is Tovala going do with its new growth capital? According to Rabie, the company plans to continue to invest in the product, by which he means everything on both the food and technology side.

“All of it, from you know the app to the packaging to the oven to the food within our walls, those are all products, and each of them are kind of an important part of the customer journey. And you know what we’ve built we think is really good, but we think it can get a lot better.”

A big chunk of the new investment will go to a new food production and packaging facility to serve the western half of the US. Currently Tovala services the entire US out of two facilities in Illinois, and so they plan to lease a new space and build out a new production, packaging and delivery facility “west of the Rockies” to serve the west and parts of the south.

What the funding won’t necessarily be used for is building a new oven, in part because the current model is working pretty well for them.

“We’re still in the exploratory phase where we’re really trying to figure out if we are going to go pursue a gen three,” said Rabie. ” What does it need to do, because the gen two works quite well. Reviews are really strong customers love it. There are not people banging on our door saying ‘if only the gen two did x, we would buy more of them current price.'”

Regardless of how it plans to spend its new cash infusion, that there is strong investor interest sets the company apart from some of its peers in the consumer hardware space. While others like Zimmplistic and Chefsteps failed to find additional financing, investors have continued to knock on Tovala’s door.

I asked Rabie why they’ve succeeded where others have struggled.

“I think it’s a complex answer,” said Rabie. “Part of it was the problem we went about solving is kind of different from all the other players. For this to work, you have to be good at building physical product, you have to be good at managing food and a food supply chain, you have to be good at marketing, you have to be good at customer service. A lot of things have to go right for it to work.”

The only other countertop smart cooking appliance seeing similar traction is Anova, which continues to sell out of their new precision steam oven. I asked Rabie if this is a sign that steam ovens might be the next breakout category.

“To be totally frank, Anova will have more to do with that than us, because we have different customers,” said Rabie. “My guess is the customer that’s buying the Anova oven is interested in cooking hacks and cooking gadgets. Our customer is like, ‘I’m really busy. I want a high quality meal on a Tuesday night, and I don’t want to keep spending $60 on Doordash.'”

I’ll be interviewing David Rabie about their latest funding round on Clubhouse today at 10 AM PT. Join us to listen and ask questions.

What Does Weber Acquiring June Say About the Smart Oven Market?

When Weber announced this week that it was acquiring smart oven maker, June, my first thought was — phew.

There was relief in knowing that June, the company, wasn’t going under any time soon, so my family will continue to enjoy June, the oven, for the foreseeable future. Instead of being a scrappy startup and dealing with issues like funding, scaling and exits, June now enjoys the deep pockets and vast sales network of grilling giant, Weber. In other words, June lives on and my smart oven won’t get bricked.

At least I hope not.

Acquisitions can get weird and who knows what Weber has in store for June, or how those plans will change. An old saw in business acquisitions is that companies don’t fully realize what they’ve bought until six months after the deal is closed.

Anyway, after the initial wave of relief, my thoughts turned to the countertop smart oven market in general, a category that still quite young. After all, June launched its first gen oven in December of 2016, which isn’t that long ago. But Weber buying June is the second major acquisition in the space since then. Brava, which started shipping its oven that cooks with light in November of 2018, was acquired by Middleby in November of 2019. Even Anova, which only launched its first smart oven last year, is owned by Electrolux.

That pretty much just leaves Tovala and Suvie as the remaining independents in the countertop smart oven space. But how long with they last?

Suvie positions itself more as a kitchen robot, in part because it doesn’t just re-heat food, it also keeps it cold and times the cooking to fit your schedule. Tovala raised $20 million and saw its business accelerate last year, thanks in part to the pandemic keeping people at home. It also doesn’t hurt that the company has has a low price point ($300) for its oven.

Anova is certainly pushing its steam-sous vide cooking as a differentiator rather than any “smart” capabilities as it enters the market. At $599 it’s not cheap per se, but Anova is promising more professional grade cooking than it is high-tech, connected bells and whistles.

A couple of years back, I wondered which companies would survive the kitchen countertopocalypse. There were so many multi-purpose (June) and single-purpose (Rotimatic) smart countertop devices coming to market that the average kitchen just doesn’t have the space to support them all. The field would winnow down, especially because some of these countertop ovens are big and take up a lot of space.

At the same time the countertop oven space is consolidating, we’re starting to see key smart features being added to traditional built-in ovens from the big players. At CES 2019, Whirlpool showed off its KitchenAid Smart Oven+, which featured automated cook programs. LG debuted an oven at CES this year that featured an Air Sous Vide setting.

The countertop smart oven space won’t disappear completely. The smaller size and cooking cavity can make preparing meals easier than firing up the gigantic built-in oven. And because they are cheaper than built-ins and don’t require installation, countertop ovens can be fertile territory for innovation. So the field is ripe for a new wave of startups to create and launch new cooking technology on a smaller scale. If that tech catches on with consumers, a bigger appliance company will acquire that startup and the cycle continues. And the industry as a whole can find relief in that.

Weber Acquires Smart Oven Maker June

Grill giant Weber announced today that it has acquired smart oven maker June. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. June had raised a total of $29.5 million in funding.

According to the press announcement, “Weber has acquired 100 percent of June, including its proprietary software, technology, intellectual property, and the June Oven line of products and accessories.”

The two companies had worked together previously on the Weber Connect, a connected temperature monitor and guided cooking device that helped grillers monitor and cook meats, and the SmokeFire pellet grill.

June is best known as being one company in the first cohort of smart-oven makers that included Tovala, Brava and Suvie. The June oven features a camera that can identify foods placed inside and automated cook programs for a wide range of foods. The company launched its third-gen June oven in October of last year.

According to today’s press release, the acquisition of June will equip Weber with technology that can “revolutionize the outdoor cooking experience.” So it’s not hard to guess that we’ll be seeing fancier, more high-tech grills coming to market soon.

On the other side of the equation, June will now have access to Weber’s gigantic sales network, infrastructure and resources to increase its sales and further develop its connected cooking platform.

June is the second connected, “smart” countertop oven makers to get acquired. In November of 2019, Middleby acquired Brava, which used special light technology to cook dishes.

FWIW, I have a second-gen June and my family uses it daily. Personally, I like June being acquired by a big company like Weber because it (hopefully) means that I don’t have to worry about June going out of business and support for my oven disappearing.

June’s Third-Gen Oven Goes on Pre-Sale with New Heat Controls and Premium Memberships

June announced today the third generation of its eponymous countertop smart oven. The latest version of the June Oven features more control over the heating elements, new cook modes, enhanced food detection and membership options.

One of the biggest changes June has made to its oven is that each of the six heating elements can now be controlled individually. This improves upon the second-gen version, where heat elements were controlled in three groups. The new individual controls allow for new types of automated cook programs like a virtual rotisserie. Instead of putting something like a whole chicken on a spit and rotating it, the heating elements alternate around the chicken. These more precise heating controls, in conjunction with an in-oven camera, also allow for zone cooking through focused heating elements.

Additional hardware improvements also include guard rails on the top heating elements and new convection fan motors that reduce vibration and sound. There’s also a new chipset to improve connectivity.

On the software side, June has added new cook programs like the aforementioned virtual rotisserie as well as a stone fired pizza setting (there’s an optional pizza and grill kit that can be purchased). The company now bills the device as a 12-in-1 appliance (up from a 7-in-1).

June is also adding membership options in 2021. The press release didn’t offer much detail, but various levels will include features like additional remote controls, exclusive recipes, live videos and more.

The new Junes are available for pre-sale today and will come in three packages that will begin shipping in late November:

  • June Smart Oven Bundle
    Price: $599
    Accessories: Food Thermometer, Nonstick Pan, Stainless Steel Crumb Tray, Wire ShelfOne Year Warranty
  • June Smart Oven Plus Bundle
    Price: $799
    Accessories: Food Thermometer, Nonstick Pan, Roasting Rack, Stainless Steel Crumb Tray, WireShelfTwo Years Warranty and One Year June App Premium Membership
  • June Smart Oven Premium Bundle
    Price: $999
    Accessories: Pizza and Grill Kit (​Enameled Cast Iron Grill/Griddle​ with Pizza Peel),​ Three AirBaskets, Stainless Steel Pro Food Thermometer, Silicone Food Thermometer, Two Nonstick Pans,Two Roasting Racks, Stainless Steel Crumb Tray, Wire Shelf
    Two Years Warranty and ​One Year June App Premium Membership

As I’ve written before, I’m a big fan of my June Oven and use it every day. Having said that, June is not the only smart oven player on the scene, and I’m intrigued by Anova’s countertop combi-oven that features steam cooking and costs $599.

Regardless, advances like the third-gen June continue to make cooking easier for non-cooks like myself.

The Food Tech Show: Steam Ovens, Sustainable Packaging & Paying With Your Face

The Anova Precision Oven was first announced at The Spoon’s own Smart Kitchen Summit in 2016 and now it’s finally shipping. Chris and Mike strategize about how to convince their significant others to fit yet another countertop appliance in the kitchen.

Other stories discuss on this week’s show:

As always, you can listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. You can also download it direct to your device or just click play below.

If you like the podcast, please subscribe and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

Whirlpool’s W Labs Countertop Smart Oven is Now Selling for Half The Original Price

Did you know Whirlpool has a countertop smart oven?

Don’t worry, most people didn’t, in part because Whirlpool never talked much about it after it launched in early 2019.

But now that you do know about it, you might also be interested to know they’re selling it for just $399. That’s half the original sticker price for the smart oven from W Labs, Whirlpool’s innovation hub. From the looks of it, the price reduction looks permanent.

So why is W Labs selling its June clone which debuted in January 2019 so cheap? It might be because the group is looking to clear out the remaining inventory of a product which was, from the beginning, positioned as an experiment. They only made 2000 of them and they only sold the product online and not through traditional Whirlpool appliance showroom sales channels.

Still, the wind down makes me wonder if the big appliance manufacturer is making way for a more permanent replacement. Whirlpool tends to do big refreshes to its product lineup every two years, which means 2021 is a refresh year after a relatively quiet 2020 and a big 2019. As part of a larger refresh, I can see a countertop smart oven as a logical candidate for the lineup.

It also appears Whirlpool is closing out its scan-to-cook smart microwaves and is out of stock on many of its smart ovens or ranges. While some of this could be due to COVID-related supply chain disruptions, this could be another indication that the company might be starting to wind down its current lineup more broadly as it prepares for a new line of smart ovens for 2021.

Tovala’s David Rabie on How He Built a Loyal User Base For His Smart Kitchen & Food Delivery Startup

Despite the complexity of building two businesses at once and presenting them as one integrated whole, Tovala’s managed to build a highly loyal user base with what is arguably the highest lifetime user value in the connected kitchen space.

I decided to catch up with Tovala’s CEO David Rabie and ask him how he’s managed to find success while other companies have struggled. 

The interview is an exclusive offering for Spoon Plus members. You can learn more about Spoon Plus here. 

Smart Oven & Food Delivery Startup Tovala Raises $20 Million Series B To Fund Growth

Tovala, the Chicago-based smart oven and meal-delivery startup, announced today it has raised a $20 million in Series B funding.

The round, led by agrifood venture capital firm Finistere Ventures, follows $9 million in Series A funding, bringing the company’s total funding close to $40 million.

It’s an interesting time for Tovala to raise such an impressive B round, coming during a pandemic where many venture firms have refocused their efforts on stabilizing existing portfolio investments and large corporate investment arms have either dialed back or outright eliminated venture initiatives.

But while the pandemic has chilled many industries, Tovala has only seen business accelerate the last few months in part due to its position at the intersection of two markets benefitting from quarantine-induced cooking: countertop home cooking appliances and home food delivery.

As we’ve noted here at the Spoon, the combination of stay-at-home orders and restaurant dine-in shutdowns led to an explosion in home cooking activity, which led to countertop home cooking equipment sales growth that was at multiples of normal industry volumes.

But according to Rabie, who I caught up with last week to discuss their latest funding, while Tovala has experienced strong growth during the pandemic, their business had actually started taking off in the second half of 2019.

“The business has been growing really fast for nearly a year now,” said Rabie. “The investors took comfort in the fact that this wasn’t a COVID trend where our business took off and might go away when normalcy returns, but actually the opposite. Business was booming pre-COVID, COVID accelerated that growth, and we believe it will accelerate adoption after COVID as people build new habits.”

Since Tovala started shipping a few years ago, I asked him why business took off last year. According to Rabie, the main difference is they changed how they talked about the product with their customers.

“We went through this exercise over the first half of 2019 to rebrand the company and better speak to our core customer,” said Rabie. “If you come to our website today versus a year ago, it looks like night and day, it’s different messaging, different photography, different videography, different user experience, same core product, just marketed differently.”

After Rabie and Tovala spent time talking to their key customers who used the Tovala multiple times per week, they realized the company’s value was in helping to solve the problem of weeknight dinner. They also realized they weren’t an oven company so much as a service company.

“The oven is the vehicle to access that food but most of our customers are not really in the market for an oven. It was kind of a lightbulb moment.”

After the rebrand, the company has seen an increase in annualized revenue of 300 percent since September of last year. In some ways, Tovala has been the little smart kitchen company that could, continuing to grow and raising more funding as other, more high profile companies, have struggled.

I asked Rabie why Tovala has succeeded when others haven’t.

“A lot of companies haven’t made it and I think there’s a lot of reasons why,” said Rabie. “The first reason is (you need to be) super clear on the problem you’re solving and making sure it’s a real problem.”

He also said that while he thinks a recurring revenue business is necessary nowadays, it can’t just be an afterthought.

“Whatever that subscription component is, it has to be inherent to the product and it has to make a lot of sense.”

Tovala plans to use the new funding round to increase staff, expand production capabilities and fuel growth. And while Rabie indicated they will build on top of their current technology, he made it clear the funding won’t largely be sunk into developing a next-generation oven.

Makes sense for an oven company that isn’t really an oven company.

If you’re a Spoon Plus subscriber, you can see my full interview with David Rabie discussing his latest funding round here.

The Spoon’s Black Friday 2019 Food Tech Deal Roundup

You may not have fully digested that pumpkin pie yet, but it’s time to start shopping for Black Friday deals.

To help makes things easier, we’ve put together the top food tech and kitchen tech Black Friday deals in one place. We’ll be updating this post throughout the next couple days, so make sure to check back.

If you see a good deal you think we haven’t mentioned yet, drop us a line.

DrinkWorks Home Bar for $199 (50% off)

If you’re lucky enough to live in a state (Florida, Missouri, California, Pennsylvania and New York) where DrinkWorks has began selling its pod-based home cocktail robot, you can take advantage of a half off deal for Black Friday. Prices goes up on Cyber Monday, but those same residents can still save $100 on the Home Bar through December 31st. To take advantage of 50% off pricing, use discount code BLACKFRIDAY on the DrinkWorks website.

Terra Kaffe TK-01: $100 Off

While some of us are still waiting for our Spinn coffee machines, those of you still in the market for a do-everything grind and brew coffee machine can take advantage of a $100-bucks-off Black Friday deal for the Terra Kaffe TK-01. Use discount code BF2019 at checkout on the Terra Kaffe website for a limited time to get this barista-in-a-box for $675.

Nomiku Meals: 40% Off

While still selling its consumer sous vide appliance, Nomiku has largely pivoted to focusing on its sous vide ready meals. This week the company is selling all of its meals for 40% off. Use discount code BLACKFRIDAY at checkout.

Instant Vortex Air Fryer: $79

You finally joined the pressure cooker crowd last holiday season, so isn’t it time you try an air fryer? Walmart is offering $40 off on the Instant 7 in 1 air fryer for Black Friday.

Tovala Connected Steam Oven: $99

As Chris wrote about earlier this week, the Tovala connected steam oven is on sale through Black Friday for $99 (regular retails is $299), provided you buy a minimum of six meals for the scan and cook appliance.

PicoBrew Pico C Beer Brew Appliance: $150 Off

PicoBrew products are perpetually on sale nowadays, but you can pick up an especially good price this Black Friday by scooping up a Pico C for just $249, which is $150 off the list price. You can get this and lots of other deals on the PicoBrew offers page, no promo code needed.

Brava Smart Oven: $250 Off

Brava just got bought by Middleby, so it looks like the company’s celebrating by dropping the price on its smart oven. You can pick up the Brava oven “Starter Set” for $250 off the regular price of $1095 over on the company website.

Anova Pro: $100 Off

Anova usually has a bunch of Black Friday deals on offer and this year is no exception. The sous vide market leader’s latest product, the Anova Pro, is on sale for $299 this Black Friday, $100 off the list price.

Free Impossible Burger at BurgerIM

If you want to step away from your computer on Black Friday (we recommend it), new burger chain BurgerIM is offering a free Impossible Burger to any guest with the purchase of a BurgerIM burger. The chain has 212 locations and you can find out if one is nearby on their website.

Suvie: $200 Off (Black Friday Only)

If you want a home cooking appliance that truly does it all, you might consider the Suvie multi-zone cooking robot. The appliance can cook a protein, starch, veggie and sauce all the same time and has a built-in refrigerator to keep things cool while you’re away. All that functionality isn’t cheap – the Suvie is normally $1,199 – but for today only you can get $200 off by using the discount code BF200.

Cinder Precision Grill: $80 off

Chris had the Cinder precision grill as one of his food tech holiday picks, so if you want to give this unique dual cooking surface precision heating appliance to the foodie in your life, you can pick one up today for $349, a full $80 bucks off full retail. The deal is Black Friday only, so better hurry.

ckbk: $24.99 (50% off) for the ‘Spotify of Cookbooks)

Why just buy someone a cookbook when you can buy them pretty much every cookbook under the sun? The ckbk service is aptly called by some the Spotify for cookbooks, giving the subscriber access to over 400 cookbooks. You can get a year subscription to ckbk for $24.99 or a six month subscription for $14.99 through this week.

Meater Connected Thermometer: 20% Off

The Meater connected thermometer is one of those gifts that seems like they were designed in a lab to perfectly fit the tech-forward griller in your life and today you can get 20% off the Meater or any other product in the Meater store.

Middleby Acquires Brava

Brava, makers of the eponymous countertop smart oven, has been acquired by industrial and residential cooking equipment company, Middleby. TechCrunch broke the news, and details of the acquisition were not provided other than it was a mix of cash and stock. The four-year-old Brava had raised $12 million in funding

Brava came out of stealth in July of 2018, showing off its countertop smart oven that uses light to cook and has the ability to cook different types of food at different temperatures at the same time. The Brava oven shipped alongside an accompanying meal plan in November of last year, costing a whopping $1,000.

Brava Founder and CEO John Pleasants said in the TechCrunch article that the company was “closing in on 5,000 customers,” which isn’t a lot. But it’s not hard to understand why Brava has struggled in the market. It was the most expensive of the countertop smart ovens at the time, and in our testing, it was hampered by the small cooking cavity and tripped up by other design details that diminished the experience.

The smart oven market is still relatively new, but it’s a crowded space, with other startups like June, Tovala, Suvie already offering products and Anova‘s smart oven on the way (not to mention existing appliance makers like Whirlpool). Brava’s high price probably prevented the company from gaining serious traction.

As far as its future, the Brava brand will remain and become part of Middleby’s commercial and residential offering (Middleby owns the Viking brand). Pleasants will stay on as CEO of Brava, while the company’s 38 employees will move over to Middleby.

Depending on how this holiday season goes, I wouldn’t be surprised to see similar smart oven acquisitions in 2020.

The JuneOS (Precisely) Heats Up New Weber SmokeFire Pellet Grill

Weber announced its new connected SmokeFire wood pellet grill today, which will use the JuneOS for precise temperature control and step-by-step guided cooking. This is the first time June’s technology has been incorporated into a third-party product.

June’s cooking smarts in the SmokeFire grill will be a little different from what June Oven users are used to. For starters, the grill is controlled by the Weber Connect app, which is powered by the JuneOS but invisible to the user. Second, there is no built-in camera to automatically recognize food or touchscreen to control the grill. Instead, there’s a black and white display on the grill with the click knob.

The SmokeFire can go from 200 to 600 degrees, so you can do both low and slow cooking as well as rip it up to get a hot sear. In addition to providing guidance on setup and meal-prep, the Weber Connect app also lets users set precise temperatures. Just like when using a June Oven, the SmokeFire will send an alert to the mobile app based on internal food temperatures to give grillers an ETA on when their food will be done.

Obviously, we haven’t had a chance to use the SmokeFire yet, but from the looks of it, it seems a lot like the Traeger Pro wood pellet grill with WiFire technology ($700). That too has an accompanying app that features precision heat control and step-by-step cooking guidance. I’m curious to see if June can carry over its clean, easy-to-follow oven UI that the Traeger lacks.

This partnership represents a first for both companies. This is Weber’s first pellet grill. It’s also the first time that June’s software has been incorporated into another company’s product. I spoke with June Co-Founder and CEO Matt Van Horn last week about this partnership and he said that his company has “always been open minded” about licensing its OS out to other companies.

The SmokeFire comes in either a 24 or 36 inch model, costing $999 and $1199 respectively. Each will be available for pre-order on Cyber Monday and shipped in early 2020.

Amazon Issued Patent For System That Coordinates Microwave Oven With Wi-Fi Network Traffic

Back when the government first set aside radio spectrum real estate for home and industrial use in 1947, one of the very first applications they had in mind was the microwave oven. Only the then nascent cooking technology, which operates within the 2.4 GHz radio band, wouldn’t be using the newly reserved spectrum to send communication signals over the air, but would instead be creating electromagnetic radiation to heat food.

Three quarters of a century later microwave ovens are still heating our food, only nowadays their widespread use congests the same ISM bands (Industrial, Scientific and Medical) that are now widely used for digital communication networks such as those based on Wi-Fi. Most of the time it’s not a problem, at least until someone gets hungry and zaps a snack in the microwave. When that happens, the device’s electromagnetic radiation can disrupt the quality of a Wi-Fi network operating in the 2.4 GHz frequency band.*

In other words, heating up Hot Pockets usually results in dropped data packets.

Most of us tolerate the problem because we don’t really think about it. Not Amazon. This week the company was issued US patent number 10,477,585 for a system that coordinates the heating element of the microwave (the magnetron) with the home’s Wi-Fi network.

How does it work? Basically by employing a system where the microwave oven and Wi-Fi network coordinate network traffic around the magnetron’s on-off cycle.

From the patent:  the “wireless communication device (e.g., the microwave oven itself, a speech interface device in the environment of the microwave oven, etc.) may determine if the magnetron of the microwave oven is operating, and, if the magnetron is operating, a coordination mechanism can be implemented to send data wirelessly in the environment during the magnetron’s off period, and to cease sending the data in the environment during the magnetron’s on period.”

So why would Amazon care about coordinating our microwave ovens with local digital communication traffic? Maybe in part to make sure the company’s tens of millions of Wi-Fi devices in our homes in the form of Alexa-powered Echos and Ring doorbells work well together. The company also has its own microwave oven product (as well as a new multifunction smart oven), so it’s not too much of a stretch to see the company implementing this technology in its own products as a potential differentiator.

In the end, it’s hard to say whether Amazon will ever even put this patent to use. The company is a prolific researcher and patent filer, and while the bulk of its patents have to do with things like cloud computing, drones and artificial intelligence, every now and then one of their patents is of a more domestic nature. But, like with the Seattle giant’s other patents like the electronic nose in a refrigerator or a smart garden, it sure is fun to speculate.

*Sure, network nerds will note that many Wi-Fi networks nowadays operate in a higher, less-cluttered frequency in the 5GHz radio band, but most Wi-Fi gear is dual-mode and still operate periodically in the 2.4 GHz band.