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Customers are notoriously fickle when it comes to sophisticated kitchen devices. On the one hand, there\u2019s undoubtedly a market for items that are deemed useful and priced appropriately.\u00a0Consider, for example, the\u00a0Anova Precision Cooker<\/a>, a $145 WiFi- and Bluetooth-enabled device that managed to get its parent company\u00a0sold to the appliance giant Electrolux in February for $250 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n On the other, make your device too complicated and expensive, and you\u00a0get\u00a0mocked<\/a>.\u00a0Yes, Juicero<\/a>, we\u2019re talking to you.<\/p>\n Brava<\/a>,\u00a0a stealth-mode IoT company with plans to create a suite of domestic hardware and software products, would seem to face the same risk. But investors clearly like what it\u2019s cooking up. Indeed, the company\u00a0\u2014 which last year raised $12 million<\/a> in Series A funding led by the venture firm True Ventures<\/a> \u2014 just raised an undisclosed amount of additional funding that more than doubles that amount.<\/p>\n TPG Growth<\/a>\u00a0led the round. Additional investors in the financing\u00a0include The Rise Fund (which is TPG\u2019s social impact fund<\/a>), Lightspeed Venture\u00a0Partners, Next Coast Ventures, Lead Edge Capital,\u00a0<\/span>DGNL Ventures, and earlier investors. Some of these include\u00a0Chris Anderson, who runs the TED conference; Rob Reid, founder of the Rhapsody music service; and Cowboy Ventures\u2019s founder Aileen Lee.<\/p>\n Brava, which now employs 46 people in Redwood City, Ca., is headed\u00a0by CEO John Pleasants, who\u00a0<\/span>has led a number of digital media companies over the last couple of decades, including\u00a0as co-president of Disney Interactive Media Group, COO\u00a0of Electronic Arts, CEO of Ticketmaster, and most recently as an EVP at Samsung.<\/p>\n Pleasants also spent a year as the CEO of Playdom, a social gaming company that was acquired for $563 million<\/a> by\u00a0Disney in 2010 (which is how Pleasants landed there).\u00a0In fact, it was at Playdom where he met Brava cofounder and Chief Product Officer Dan Yue, who went to high school with Brava\u2019s other cofounder and its Chief Technology Officer, Thomas Cheng.<\/p>\n Yue was Playdom\u2019s chief product officer and headed to\u00a0Disney with Pleasants after the sale, logging a\u00a0couple of years\u00a0with the entertainment giant as an\u00a0SVP of product.\u00a0Cheng meanwhile cofounded\u00a0the smart parking company Streetline and recently spent a year as the head of hardware at August, the smart lock company.<\/p>\n Pleasants wouldn\u2019t tell us much about Brava when we chatted last year<\/a>, and he\u2019s still not saying much about the company\u2019s plans, except to offer\u00a0that it\u2019s \u201cbuilding a system that makes it easier to cook and eat well at home.\u201d<\/p>\n Pleasants also says Brava is still targeting a public launch by the end of this year,\u00a0which is the timeline he\u2019d given us last year. And he says its products will be\u00a0available for purchase through its site<\/a>. (It isn\u2019t announcing any distribution partners \u2014 at least, not right now.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Asked if Juicero\u2019s challenging publicity of late has made him think twice about demand for complicated kitchen appliances \u2014 even well-made ones\u00a0\u2014 he declined to comment.<\/p>\n Pictured above: Pleasants (in a Bay Area restaurant, notably, and not Brava\u2019s testing kitchen.)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com\/2017\/05\/image11.jpg?w=680\")
Customers are notoriously fickle when it comes to sophisticated kitchen devices. On the one hand, there’s undoubtedly a market for items that are deemed useful and priced appropriately.\u00a0Consider, for example, the\u00a0Anova Precision Cooker, a $145 WiFi- and Bluetooth-enabled device that managed to get its parent company\u00a0sold to the appliance giant Electrolux in February for $250 million.… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n\n<\/img><\/a>
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