C
Cooking.com
Is an online store for kitchen products and offers a collection of recipes and community features
About Cooking.com
Cooking.com emerged in 1998 as an early entrant into the online kitchenware market, founded by Tracy Randall. The company originated from the technology incubator Idealab, which was led by entrepreneur Bill Gross. Over its history, Cooking.com secured significant private funding, totaling between $40.6 million and $102 million over several rounds from investors including Idealab, Azure Capital Partners, and BIA Digital Partners.
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The company's primary business was the online retail of kitchen products, offering a wide selection of bakeware, cookware, cutlery, and appliances from brands like Calphalon and KitchenAid. Its business model was twofold. For consumers, it operated as an e-commerce store and a content destination, providing a vast library of recipes and active community forums to engage home cooks. For businesses, Cooking.com leveraged its e-commerce infrastructure through its "Powered By Cooking.com" platform. This service allowed media companies and consumer brands, such as the Food Network and Rachael Ray, to establish fully managed and custom-branded online stores.
A significant milestone in the company's journey was its acquisition by Target Corp. in March 2013. The acquisition was part of Target's strategy to expand its online presence in the kitchen and cooking market. Following the acquisition, Cooking.com was set to operate as part of a new subsidiary, TCC Cooking Co., alongside another acquired company, Chefs Catalog. Tracy Randall, the co-founder, transitioned to a consultant role for Target. However, the venture did not meet Target's long-term strategic expectations, and the decision was made to close down Cooking.com in late 2015.
At a glance
- Status
- Acquired
- Founded
- 1998
- Headquarters
- Los Angeles, United States
- Employees
- 124
- Open positions
- None listed
- Dealroom signal
- 65.1/100
- Industry
- Food, Media
- Sub-industry
- Publishing
- Sector
- eCommerce & Marketplaces, Community, Recipes, Kitchen
- Business model
- Marketplace & ecommerce
- Client focus
- b2b, b2c
Latest news
Press, funding announcements and product moves mentioning Cooking.com.
Funding history
Company financing events and reported valuations.
| Deal type | Date | Amount | Valuation | Investors | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ACQUISITIONOther financing | Mar 2013 | $0 | — | Target Corporation | — |
| LATE VCOther financing | Dec 2011 | $14M | $54M | BIA Digital Partners · Azure Capital Partners | — |
Growth signals
Latest recorded traffic for Cooking.com is 3.6K monthly website visits, up 1340% over the last three months. Cooking.com's team declined 4.6% over the past year.
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Investors
From Dealroom's funding and investor records, grouped by the round each investor first entered.
Series A6 investors entered at this stage
Vanguard Ventures- PGPhillips Smith Specialty Group
Tredegar Investments
Idealab
Dynafund Ventures
Moore Capital
Series B and later8 investors entered at this stage
Navigation Capital- FBForrest Binkley and Brown
NetWorth Partners
Starbucks
Hikari Tsushin Group- PVPyramid Technology Ventures
Azure Capital Partners
BIA Digital Partners
Other known investors1 additional known investor
Target Corporation
Source: Dealroom Talent Intelligence.
Global footprint
team presence
Market sentiment
An AI-synthesised read of the highest-engagement posts about Cooking.com on X, ranked by likes and reposts, corporate channels excluded.
Reading the room on X — pulling top posts and synthesizing themes…
Source: X recent search ranked by engagement (likes + retweets) · Synthesis by Claude · Cached for 1 hour
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