We started Steambox because a busy day should never mean a bad meal. Whether you meal prep, buy something good, or simply want to save time. Steambox gives you the freedom to eat well, anywhere.
A busy life should never mean a bad meal.
It started with a simple wish: a moment of calm in a busy day, and a proper hot meal to go with it. Not whatever happened to be available. Not something that had been sitting out for hours. Real food, the way it should taste. We looked for a way to make that happen and found nothing that actually worked. Every option dried the food out, heated it unevenly, or felt like a compromise. So we built our own answer: an electric steam food heater that heats your meal gently, evenly, and exactly as it deserves.
Why steam is the right way to heat real food.
- Heats every part of your meal evenly — no cold centre, no scorched edge Steam surrounds your food completely. Unlike a microwave, there is no single hot spot — every bite comes out the same.
- Locks moisture in, so food tastes exactly as you made it Steam creates a humid environment around the food, preserving texture and keeping sauces together instead of drying them out.
- Rice stays fluffy. Vegetables keep their bite. Proteins stay tender. Gentle heat preserves cell structure, so your meal arrives with the same texture it had when you cooked it.
- Gentle heat retains more vitamins and nutrients than a microwave High microwave temperatures destroy heat-sensitive vitamins. Steam works at a lower temp and keeps more of them intact.
- Heats your food anywhere — no kitchen, no queue, no compromise Plug into any power source. Works on the train, at your desk, in the car, or off-grid with the optional battery pack.
- Radiation blasts from one direction — cold spots are unavoidable
- Pulls moisture out and leaves your food dry
- Rubbery proteins, soggy vegetables, split sauces
- Destroys heat-sensitive vitamins and nutrients
- Requires a kitchen, a socket, and a queue
Six years building the right answer.
We lived the problem, then built the solution.
Two founders, both living the same problem: busy days, trying to eat good food, and no decent way to eat it hot on the go. Not just their own cooking, any meal worth eating deserved better than a microwave. In December 2019 we presented the first prototype to the world on Kickstarter. More than and took it to FIBO in Germany. A Kickstarter followed, more than 1000 people backed it, and that made one thing clear — this was not just our problem to solve.
1000+ backers · Kickstarter 2019
CES Las Vegas — the world took notice.
Steambox presented at CES Las Vegas at the Holland Pavilion. More than 60 news outlets worldwide covered the electric self-heating lunchbox. The response made one thing clear: this was not just a Dutch problem to solve. Portable hot food is a universal need.
CES Las Vegas · 60+ media worldwide
The hardest year became the foundation.
COVID disrupted the supply chain. A manufacturer dropped out. The team rebuilt from scratch, found a new production partner, and secured first investors. Most early-stage hardware startups would have stopped here. We did not, because the problem we set out to solve had not gone away.
investment secured · kept pushing
Thousands of people eating better, every day.
After presenting at IFA Berlin, Steambox began shipping in mid 2023. Thousands of portable electric food heaters reached daily commuters, athletes, field workers, nurses, and travellers across more than 60 countries. The electric lunchbox had found its audience — people who eat well and refuse to eat badly.
Started shipping · 60+ countries
From The Hague to the world's front pages.
Engadget, TechCrunch, BBC, Wallstreet Journal, Forbes and RTL Nieuws all covered Steambox. The electric steam food heater earned a place in the KVK Innovation Top 100 Netherlands. A small Dutch team building something the world had not seen before — a self-heating food lunchbox that actually respects the meal inside it.
Engadget · Forbes · TechCrunch · BBC · KVK Top 10 Innovation
We stopped. We listened. We rebuilt it properly.
By the end of 2024 we faced a choice: keep selling a product we knew could be better, or stop and rebuild from the core. We chose to rebuild. We removed the built-in battery and focused entirely on what makes this electric food heater exceptional — steam. The result: twice as fast, 40% lighter, €100 less expensive.
2x faster · 40% lighter · €100 cheaper
Full control over what you eat, wherever you are.
The electric lunchbox was the starting point, not the finish line. We are building a complete ecosystem — more products, more tools, more ways to eat your own food at its best, anywhere in the world. Everything we add has to earn its place. The best version of Steambox is still ahead.
New products · New markets · Same missionWho eats better with Steambox
The commuter
You cook on Sunday because you know the week will be relentless. You want that meal on Thursday to be as warm, fresh, and good as when it left your kitchen. A portable electric lunchbox that fits in your bag makes that possible, every single day.
The athlete
You meal prep with precision because what you eat shapes how you perform. Cold protein and limp rice after training is not performance nutrition, it is a compromise. Steambox heats your food the way it deserves, so your preparation never goes to waste.
Everyone away from a kitchen
The field worker. The nurse on a long shift. The parent driving between commitments. The traveller far from any oven. If you took the time to cook a proper meal, Steambox makes sure that effort was not wasted the moment you left the house. Hot food anywhere is not a luxury, it is what you deserve.
You should always have a choice.
No more compromises
A busy day should never force you into a bad meal. Whether you meal prep, buy something good and want it to taste that way, or simply want to save time — Steambox gives you a real option. Hot, fresh, exactly as it should be.
Freedom to eat well, anywhere
You should not need a kitchen nearby to eat properly. Steambox makes you independent of canteens, microwaves, and whatever happens to be available. Your meal, your choice, wherever you are.
Real food, the way it should taste
Steam heats food the way it deserves — evenly, gently, without drying it out. Whether you cooked it yourself or bought it ready-made, it arrives tasting like it was just prepared. That is the standard we build everything against.
“I wanted one thing: to sit down in the middle of a busy day, eat something warm and good, and feel like a human being for five minutes. Real food, the way it should taste: that turned out to be harder than it should be. So we built the solution.”
Steambox started from a feeling we knew well. Long days, always moving, but unwilling to settle for whatever happened to be available. We wanted real food. Whether we had cooked it ourselves or bought something worth eating: to taste the way it should, anywhere. We searched for something that could make that happen and found nothing worth buying. So in 2019 we started building it ourselves. We showed the first prototype at FIBO, launched on Kickstarter, presented at CES in Las Vegas, and watched it reach thousands of people in more than 60 countries. In 2024 & 2025 we made the hardest call: stop, go back to the core, and rebuild properly. The Steambox today is faster, lighter, and better than anything we made before. And we are just getting started.
Real food, the way it should taste, wherever the day takes you.
Good food shouldn't stop when you leave home. Steambox heats any meal in minutes — yours to enjoy, wherever the day takes you. From €169.
Shop Steambox Designed in The Hague. Eaten everywhere.