Tyson Foods Invests in Tovala Smart Meal Delivery & Cooking System

It was recently announced that Tyson Foods, Inc. has made an investment in Tovala, which is a smart meal delivery and oven. It has the ability to prepare meals through its own meal delivery service, but can also cook recipes that have been specially formulated and shared within the company’s mobile application.

The smart oven they’ve designed features a barcode scanner. You’ll use that scanner to cook the meals Tovala has delivered or to cook one of the prepared recipes you’ve found through the app. Once you’ve put the dish in the oven, you scan the barcode, and the oven follows the pre-programmed cooking instructions with no further effort from you.

Customers will need to have Wi-Fi enabled, as well as an internet connection in order to take advantage of the smart oven’s features. Without Wi-Fi, the oven is unable to access recipes that are stored on the cloud server. That means it would be unable to utilize the cooking instructions to prepare your meal.

The premise behind this idea from Tovala is that the smart oven should make cooking and preparing meals easier for busy individuals and families. Instead of programming the oven yourself, you can essentially put your meal in the oven and let it do its thing. Having the pre-programmed cooking instructions means it’s less stress on you because the oven is tackling all the hard work. It’s meant to provide convenience without sacrificing quality or taste.

It appears their new partnership with Tyson Foods is an opportunity to provide even more meals to their customers.

“By controlling the experience end-to-end, including the hardware, software, and food, our customers benefit by not having to sacrifice convenience, health, or taste.” said David Rabie, the co-founder and CEO of Tovala.

At this time, details of the investment have not been disclosed. However, Tovala does have a number of investors already. Origin Ventures, Pritzker Group, Y Combinator, Morningstar Inc.’s founder Joe Mansueto, and restauranteur Larry Levy have already raised funding during the start-u’s Series A. They’re planning to use the money they’ve raised to add more staff the company, expand their geographic reach, and invest more into the product itself. They also hope to increase their technology, operations, and marketing budgets.