Chicago startup Tovala is heading into the holiday shopping season with a big celebrity endorsement behind it.
Tovala was included in this year's Oprah's Favorite Things list, a collection of food, gifts, gadgets and other goodies approved by the media mogul herself. Tovala, maker of a smart oven and meal delivery service that uses a barcode scanner to correctly cook your meal in 20 minutes or less, appears in the Kitchen Gifts section of Oprah's list alongside brands like the Yedi bread maker, Phillips pasta maker and the Wonderffle waffle iron.
Tovala's inclusion in the list actually starts with Oprah's longtime friend Gayle King, CEO David Rabie told me. The company sent an oven to King during the pandemic, who made frequent use of it during quarantine. "Gayle swears this kept her fed through isolation," Oprah writes in this year's list.
"Gayle took a real liking to the product, which was great. It was really organic," Rabie said. "It worked great for her and her life, and she shared that with Oprah."
Rabie said the nod from Oprah has already resulted in an uptick in sales, and he's expecting it to continue boosting the business throughout the shopping season.
"It helps us build to becoming a household name across the country," he said.
Founded by Rabie and Bryan Wilcox in 2017, Tovala has raised $70 million to date from investors like Left Lane Capital, Origin Ventures, Pritzker Group VC and Y Combinator. Its oven uses five different cooking modes — steam, bake, broil, toast and reheat — and can easily cook one of the company's pre-prepared meals after scanning a bar code. The device can also cook non-Tovala branded meals, like Kashi, Amy’s and other brands you'd find at the grocery store.
With no shortage of holiday gift guides available on the internet, Oprah's annual list, which is in its 25th year, still carries weight.
"She’s done such a good job of building her brand in an authentic, genuine way," Rabie said. "I think it still resonates with people."
Tovala, which now has more than 200 employees, is planning to soon open a production facility in Utah, which adds to its two centers in Illinois. It's eyeing an East Coast facility in the future as well, Rabie said. The startup is also closely monitoring the ongoing supply chain crisis in America, but says its inventory is stocked and ready for the holidays.
"We’ve been fortunate and smart about how we managed our supply chain," Rabie said. "We haven’t run into major issues."
