附近上门

Startups in the connected cooking device space hoping to serve up success may have some trouble getting funding.

After a number of high-profile failures in the sector ( and, I鈥檓 looking at you) this year, venture capitalists seem to have gone from hot to cold on the sector.

Cooking The Numbers

Global funding in smart food and drink prep devices increased by 10 times to $33.66 million from 2012 to 2015. The category then surged to nearly $150 million in 2016, according to 附近上门 data. However, investments haven鈥檛 kept up. So far in 2017, just $15.75 million has made its way into smart food and drink devices.

In September, San Francisco-based shut down after hauling in a total of $118.5 million in venture since it was founded four years prior. The self-described inventor of the first home cold-pressed juicing system raised $98 million of that funding haul in 2016 alone. That amounted to about two-thirds raised by the entire space for the year. A slew of investors, including,,, and, pumped money into the company. (Two Sigma and Artis Ventures did not respond to requests for comment.)

Then, in October, Mountain View-based tea infuser startup also shuttered after raising $17.1 million in funding from investors such as and. (Upfront Ventures declined to comment.)

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But it hasn鈥檛 been all doom and gloom in the sector. In February, sous vide Kickstarter darling announced that Swedish appliance giant had agreed the startup for $250 million. Anova鈥檚 mission is to build the Anova Kitchen, which it described as 鈥渁 kitchen where devices are precise, dead-simple to use, affordable, and connected in a meaningful way.鈥�

Not Well Done

There鈥檚 a number of theories as to why Juicero and Teforia didn鈥檛 survive, but the price point of each startup鈥檚 products likely played a central part.

Juicero鈥檚 second-generation juicer sold for $700 before the company cut the price to $400 back in January. By July, the CEO conceded it was still 鈥渢oo expensive.鈥�

Teforia 鈥� which had been dubbed the Juicero of tea 鈥� was selling its internet-connected tea brewing machine for $1,000.

Some categories are doing better than others. Beer-brewing startups like, for example, are still in the game despite a $549 price point. That Seattle company has raised about $15 million.

So what makes one smart cooking device company more likely to succeed than another?

, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Austin-based, believes 鈥渁 pretty significant change in the way consumers interact in their home and their kitchen鈥� is currently taking place.

His firm was one of a number of venture capital companies that invested in Newark, Cali.-based undisclosed Series B round in May. The startup 鈥� which vaguely describes itself as an IoT and domestic automation company that integrates technology and design to enable joyful experiences in the home, starting with the kitchen 鈥� also raised $12 million in September 2016.

鈥淭hough it鈥檚 super early, Brava is following a model that we think will be successful,鈥� Smerklo told 附近上门 News. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e working to build convenient, reliable connected cooking devices and bring in aspects of social engagement over time.鈥�

Smerklo believes the cooking industry is ripe for disruption.

鈥淲hen you think about how you cook today, it鈥檚 largely been done with an oven or a grill or a recipe in a way that hasn鈥檛 changed much in the last 50 years,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut now you can drive temperatures up and down remotely and do a number of things that could not be done before.鈥�

For the mass market to get excited about a smart cooking device, Smerklo believes the product needs to be a few things: reasonably priced, convenient and offer a differentiated experience. One point of differentiation could be increased social engagement, such as interactive cooking classes through your smart device.

鈥淐ould you be sitting around a cooking device and taking a cooking class, or getting recipe tips,鈥� he said. 鈥� Those things offer a significantly different experience than me sitting in my kitchen cooking by myself with a cookbook.鈥�

, publisher of and creator of the, believes the hardware market in general tends to see more high-profile failures than successes.

But some are doing well, he points out, such as Seattle-based, which says it鈥檚 on a mission 鈥渢o help people cook smarter鈥� via its website and companion app.

鈥淚t helps when companies can provide a product that a consumer sees as providing value for the amount of money they鈥檙e paying,鈥� he told 附近上门 News. 鈥淎nd that presents a new way of cooking.鈥�

He agrees with Smerklo that building and tapping into large communities is crucial. ChefSteps, he said, created its own community with cooking videos and then was able to sell into that community.

鈥淟onger term, there鈥檚 a lot of innovation coming down the pike,鈥� he said. 鈥淚n Europe, they鈥檙e creating entirely new cooking devices but that hasn鈥檛 been brought down to the consumer price point in the U.S. yet.鈥�

Both Smerklo and Wolf agree that Juicero鈥檚 problems stemmed from more than its high price points. It was also a product that to do anything very life-changing or spectacular.

鈥淧lus, they kept the consumer captive in their ecosystem,鈥� Wolf pointed out. 鈥淭hey might have had more success if they had opened it up to other people and partnered with say, Dole.鈥�

In the case of Teforia, it started to see competitors marketing the same product , according to Wolf. That became a problem.

, managing partner and CEO of Dallas-based, believes another issue with these types of companies are that many are just building one-off products rather than a platform from which other people can develop.

鈥淧eople can figure out how to squeeze juice themselves so when needing to cut their budget, an expensive juicer might be considered an unnecessary item in their lives,鈥� Blankenship told 附近上门 News. 鈥淏ut if you can build a platform that鈥檚 sustainable and that can weather a storm such as a recession, then you鈥檒l have more success. Founders are thinking too short-term, and saying, 鈥楲ook at my sexy product.鈥� But they need to think about how they are still going to be in existence 10 or 20 years from now.鈥�

Whether investors continue to bet on this space remains to be seen. In the meantime, it鈥檚 clear that startups need to work harder to fulfill bigger needs in the kitchen.