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Nise
Techstars '20Brampton, CA · Founded 2016 · 2 employees on LinkedIn · 1 known investors
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Nise, based in Brampton, Ontario, combines connected kitchen hardware with a companion cooking application. The system pairs recipe instruction and cooking education with the device, aimed at home cooks who want guidance while preparing meals.
Also known as Nise Tech · Nise Technologies
Investors · 1
How we know: the Techstars portfolio · open dataset · Top 3000 Accelerator Startups (no YC) 2026-08 · Not right? Tell us
Company profile
researched Sep 2026Nise Tech is a Canadian consumer hardware company behind the Nise Wave, a sous vide cooking device aimed at home cooks. Sous vide cooking involves submerging bagged food in a temperature-controlled water bath for an extended period to reach a specific level of doneness. The Wave connects to a smartphone, which is used to transmit a recipe to the device, and uses an adaptive temperature control system so that users can determine when a dish is ready. Beyond steak, the company describes the device as suitable for vegetables, pork, beef and desserts, with food placed in a reusable bag and then into the water with the unit.
The company was built around a North America-focused consumer product derived from commercial-grade sous vide machines previously sold to restaurants and cafés in China. Nise Tech was developed at the ICUBE incubator at the University of Toronto Mississauga, and its manufacturing branch is run from China. As of 2017 the company said it was exploring machine learning for future products, such as image recognition that could estimate the size of a cut of meat and determine how to cook it.
Founding story
Rayner Mendes, an Ivey Business School graduate, was looking for a startup job in China on an entrepreneurship fellowship when he connected over social media with Grant Hu, a University of Toronto alumnus running a Beijing-based company selling commercial-grade sous vide machines to Chinese restaurants and cafés. Hu offered Mendes a job over LinkedIn, and the two met in Beijing, where they conceived a consumer-oriented sous vide device, the Nise Wave, and built a North America-focused company around it. Wilfrid Laurier graduate Dorian Wilson is also named as a co-founder. Mendes subsequently returned to southern Ontario as CEO, while Hu continued to run the manufacturing branch from China.
Business model
Nise Tech sells a consumer cooking appliance, the Nise Wave, priced at US$199, paired with smartphone-based recipe control. Initial demand was raised directly from consumers through a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign ahead of retail launch.
Traction
The Kickstarter campaign raised nearly US$240,000, roughly seven times its US$35,000 goal; the company described itself as the number one live project in Canada and the most-funded food project on the platform at that time, with deliveries targeted for early 2018.
Latest developments
As of August 2017, Nise Tech had completed a Kickstarter campaign of nearly US$240,000, aimed to ship the Nise Wave to customers by early 2018, and said it hoped to leverage the campaign into a seed round.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history
Market position
Nise positions the Wave against other consumer sous vide machines primarily on price, at US$199, and on smartphone control, within the broader trend toward connected home appliances.
Technology
The Nise Wave combines a sous vide immersion cooking device with smartphone integration and an adaptive temperature control system; recipes are transmitted from the phone to the device, which manages the cook. The company stated it was investigating machine learning for future products, including photo-based analysis to identify the size of a food item and select cooking parameters.
Go-to-market
The company launched via a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign, which it cited as the top live project in Canada and the most-funded food project at the time, and planned to deliver product to backers in early 2018 while preparing a Canadian launch and seeking a seed round.
Home cooks who enjoy good food but lack the time or experience to prepare it, including, per the company, technology-interested家 family cooks such as "barbecue dads"; more broadly, consumers entering the connected-home category at a low price point.
Geography
Headquartered in southern Ontario, Canada, with participation in the ICUBE incubator at the University of Toronto Mississauga and a manufacturing branch operated from China; the product is targeted at the North American market.
History
The founders met via social media in 2016 while Mendes was in China, and developed the Nise Wave concept in Beijing before establishing a North America-focused company. The startup joined the ICUBE incubator at U of T Mississauga, ran a Kickstarter campaign that closed at nearly US$240,000, and by August 2017 was preparing for a Canadian launch and pursuing seed financing.
Compiled by commissioned research from 6 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Timeline · 2
launches, deals, and filingsNise Tech's crowdfunding campaign for the Nise Wave sous vide device raised nearly US$240,000, approximately seven times its US$35,000 goal. The company described it as the number one live project in Canada and the most-funded food project on Kickstarter at the time.
$240K source ↗
Nise Tech was incubated at ICUBE, the University of Toronto Mississauga's incubator program.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
▸Research sources · 6
primary sources listed
- Nise Tech - YouTubeyoutube.com · web
6 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Nise do?
- Nise Tech makes the Nise Wave, a consumer sous vide cooking device controlled through a smartphone app.
- Who are Nise's investors?
- Nise's investors include Techstars.
- Where is Nise headquartered?
- Nise is headquartered in Brampton, CA.