Tovala is revamping its smart oven as the holiday shopping season approaches.
The Chicago startup officially unveiled its "Gen 2" oven this week, which features a slimmed-down version of its countertop oven that uses a combination of steam heat, baking and broiling to create restaurant-quality meals from your home.
The new version is around 20 percent smaller than the original model that launched in 2017. It's also lighter, weighing just under 20 pounds compared to 31 pounds for the first oven.
Bringing the form factor down to allow for more countertop space and making it less heavy were two improvements early customers wanted to see, CEO and co-founder David Rabie said.
"It was just not a great customer experience if you got this huge box delivered to you and it was hard for you to even get it into your home," Rabie said.
There were other customer complaints that Tovala's Gen 2 improves upon, Rabie said, like the ability to pre-heat the oven, easier WiFi set up, and less steam that emits from the back. The Tovala app also has more recipe options for users to cook their own meals, rather that relying on Tovala's ready-to-cook meal options.
Being able to use Tovala to cook your own recipes brings some extra flexibility to customers. But the convenience of Tovala comes from its meal delivery service, which is designed by chef Alexander Plotkin and delivered to your door for $12 per meal. The oven scans the barcode of the Tovala-delivered meal, and pulls data from the cloud to know how exactly to cook the food.
Tovala's oven costs $349, but customers can purchase it for $249 if they commit to ordering 100 meals over the course of a year.
Tovala has raised $13 million in venture capital to date from investors like Tyson Foods, Origin Ventures and Pritzker Group Venture Capital. It has around 50 employees.
Overall, Rabie said customer reaction to Tovala has been positive, and the startup is expecting a busy holiday shopping season, especially from health-conscious consumers who like Tovala's portion-controlled meals.
"We keep hearing from our customers that it's the best use of counter space they’ve ever had," Rabie said.
