As consumers look for convenient meal options during the coronavirus crisis, Tovala's smart oven and meal delivery service has been in hot demand. And it just raised a new round of funding to bring its meals to people well beyond Covid-19.
Chicago-based Tovala announced Tuesday that it raised a $20 million Series B round led by Finistere Ventures, an agtech-focused VC firm that's backed food startups like Farmer’s Fridge and Memphis Meats. Other investors in the round include Comcast Ventures, OurCrowd, Rich Products Ventures, Origin Ventures, Pritzker Group Venture Capital, Crate & Barrel founder Gordon Segal, New Stack Ventures and the University of Chicago.
Tovala has been among the few companies that has seen an uptick in business during Covid-related stay-at-home orders. The company says its meal delivery subscribers grew by more than 20 percent since mid-March, and its annualized revenue has increased by 300 percent since last September.
Tovala says it has shipped more than a million meals to date.
"Business is doing really well," founder and CEO David Rabie said. "There's a lot of changes and operational challenges with operating during Covid, but demand for our product from current customers and prospective customers is higher than it’s ever been."
Founded in 2017, Tovala created a countertop oven that scans the barcode of a Tovala meal or other brand-name grocery items to know how exactly to cook the meal. The oven uses a combination of steam, baking and broiling to cook "restaurant-quality" meals in under 20 minutes.
Tovala last raised a $9.2 million Series A round in 2017.
Rabie said raising the most recent funding was a unique experience, as fewer funds are doing deals during Covid and meetings are taking place over Zoom---rather than in person. He said some investors never met the company in person before writing a check.
"I don’t think we raise this round if we weren't succeeding pre-Covid," Rabie said. "I also don’t think we raise this round if we weren’t succeeding during Covid. It's a much more challenging fundraising landscape."
