Weber Buys June To Bring Smart Oven Tech In-House
Weber has acquired June, with the grilling icon eating up the smart oven startup that it previously collaborated with. The deal – terms of which have not been disclosed – will see June continue to offer its connected multi-purpose ovens, which boast convection, air fryer, grill, broiling, and slow cooking from one device, among other talents.
Indeed, June's big claim was that its eponymous oven, launched back in 2015, could replace most of the other separate cooking devices found in the average kitchen. The only thing it wasn't, in fact, was the microwave it most closely resembled. Controlled via a touchscreen embedded in the door, it also included connectivity to a remote app that even shows live video within the oven.
That technology – known as JuneOS – had already caught Weber's eye. The company better known for its kettle grills turned to June to help develop Weber Connect, launched at CES 2020 last year. It hooked old-school grills up to your WiFi, making them controllable through a smartphone. Now, the relationship is set to get even closer.
"Adding June's expertise and technology to our own allows us to accelerate our connected innovation programs and better address grillers' needs with new products and services that offer simplicity and fuel grilling discovery through enhanced capabilities," Chris Scherzinger, CEO of Weber-Stephen Products. June's co-founders will be joining Weber, with Matt Van Horn taking up the role of President of June, and Nikhil Bhogal as Senior Vice-President, Technology and Connected Devices.
June will become a strategy business unit within Weber, and get to tap into the grill-maker's scale. That means more products in the future, and hopefully an end to production bottlenecks which currently leave the oven on a wait-list for new orders. Pricing kicks off at $599, and ranges to $999 for June Oven Premium.
It's not the first time we've seen a cooking industry heavyweight snap up a cutting-edge kitchen startup like this. Back in 2017, for example, Electrolux acquired Anova, bringing the company that arguably popularized home sous-vide – or at least made it much more affordable – in-house.