David Rabie’s Tovala Had 3 Weeks of Cash Left. Now It’s a 9-Figure Company

How the founder bounced back after his Series B fell apart in February 2020.

BY ANNABEL BURBA, EDITORIAL ASSISTANT @ANNIEBURBA

Tovala co-founder and CEO David Rabie. Illustration: Inc; Photo: Tovala, Getty Images

For a period of about five hours in 2020, David Rabie says he felt “ready to give up” on Tovala, the Chicago-based food tech company he had founded five years prior.

It all started when Tovala—which sells smart ovens and ready-to-cook meal kits—failed to raise a Series B in early 2019. “We were not growing fast enough, we didn’t really have product-market fit, and our margins weren’t great,” he says. “Even though a lot of investors were very excited, and we got to the final [investment committee] with a bunch of people, no one ultimately wrote us a check.”

Left with no other option, Rabie, who had already raised $4 million in capital, went to his existing investor base and put together what he calls a “hodgepodge” bridge round. The deal bought Tovala about 10 more months. Participating investors, however, made it very clear that “the well was dry,” Rabie recalls. Their message: “If we........

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