Tovala just cooked up a new round of funding to get its "smart oven" into more homes.
Tovala announced Monday that it has raised a $9.2 million Series A round led by Origin Ventures. Other investors in the round include the Pritzker Group, Y Combinator, Morningstar Founder Joe Mansueto, Levy Restaurants Co-Founder Larry Levy, and the University of Chicago, which invested in the round as part of its new UChicago Startup Investment Program.
Tovala makes a countertop smart oven that uses a combination of steam, baking and broiling to create restaurant-quality meals right from your home. The oven scans the barcode of a Tovala-delivered meal, and pulls data from the cloud to know how exactly to cook the meal, switching between the three cooking methods. The food cooks in less than 20 minutes, and users get a notification to their phone when food is ready. Tovala retails for $399, but customers can also buy it for just $199 if they commit to 24 meal deliveries over 12 months. Tovala's prepared meals cost $12 each.
Tovala CEO and Founder David Rabie said the startup now has around 40 employees and will use the funding to hire across all departments, as well as invest in its product, technology and marketing.
Origin Ventures also led Tovala's $1.6 million seed round back in 2016. Origin is known for being one of the earliest investors in Chicago-based Grubhub, leading the first two rounds of funding for the food delivery company.
Grubhub, of course, went public in 2014 and its shares are trading today at $72, which is an all-time high. It has a market cap of $6.3 billion and is one of Chicago's most successful startup stories in years.
It's too early to say if Tovala can reach anything close to Grubhub territory, but there are a few parallels between the two Chicago tech companies. Both started at the University of Chicago and won the school's New Venture Challenge business competition. Both are working to make dinner as effortless as possible. And both share an early investor that's looking to fund disruptive food businesses.
"...both companies are attacking big problems in the gigantic food-at-home market, albeit differently," Origin Ventures Partner Jason Heltzer told Chicago Inno. "Tovala's smart steam oven combined with a meal service allows chefs to control every variable, so it's not a surprise the food is excellent. Tovala solves the dinner problem with no prep, no cleanup, and no waiting."
Heltzer is also joining Tovala's board of directors as part of the investment.
Tovala has now raised more than $13 million to date.
