Smart ring start-up Ōura raises $200mn as valuation leaps to $5.2bn

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Ōura, the maker of smart health trackers popular with celebrities and business executives, has raised $200 million in new funding, doubling its valuation to $5.2 billion by 2022.

Founded in Finland in 2013, Uura’s latest deal is one of the largest for a privately held European tech company outside of the artificial intelligence space, which has absorbed a disproportionate share of venture capital funding this year.

Fidelity Management led Ōura’s latest round along with US-based glucose monitoring group Dexcom, raising a total of more than $550 million in capital, according to the company.

Celebrity Hooray ring lovers! include Prince Harry, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jennifer Aniston, executives from IBM and Delta, as well as Silicon Valley founders such as Twitter’s Jack Dorsey, Salesforce’s Marc Benioff and Airbnb’s Joe Gebbia.

Its growing popularity has seen sales more than double this year to nearly $500 million, with total ring sales exceeding 2.5 million. Ōura CEO Tom Hale said the company is profitable.

Oura said the funds will allow it to expand its products into new categories, invest in AI and drive international expansion, as well as potential acquisitions.

“We know Ōura has the potential to change lives at scale, and we’re excited to continue to lead the market in innovation while pursuing opportunities beyond the ring,” said Haley.

Ōura got its start on Kickstarter, a crowdfunding website, in 2016.

Its rings, which cost more than $349 for the latest Ōura 4 model, plus a $5.99 monthly subscription, track the wearer’s sleep, heart rate, body temperature, and activity. A smartphone app turns this data into a personalized “Readiness Score” and offers tips on how to improve it.

It wearable technology and the fitness tracker market has long been dominated by smartwatches such as the Apple Watch. However, unit shipments of smartwatches are expected to fall 3 percent this year, according to market research group IDC’s estimates, while unit shipments of rings growing at 88 percent, making them the fastest-growing wearables alongside smart glasses such as Meta’s camera. Ray-Bans.

Bigger tech companies are starting to take notice of Ōura’s success when Samsung launched its Galaxy Ring in July.IDC predictions shipments of smart rings will increase from 1.7 million this year to 3.1 million in 2028.

Health tech has been a bright spot for European startups this year, attracting $7.9 billion in venture capital in the first three quarters of 2024, according to Dealroom.