Oura filed an IPO application with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, the smart ring maker confirmed last week.
The company has not yet disclosed the number of shares it will offer, as well as the price range of the proposed IPO.
Finnish company Oura has raised $1.5 billion in capital since its founding in 2013. Its last funding round took place last October, when the company won $900 million to expand its capabilities and expand its reach across the globe. This round brought Oura’s valuation to $11 billion.
The company offers consumers a wearable smart ring. The ring – which starts at $349 – provides personalized health information and advice related to sleep, activity, stress and fertility. In September, Oura announced that it had exceeded 5.5 million rings sold.
Its mission has evolved over the years: it started as a sleep-focused wellness startup and has now grown into a business carve out a role in improving health and managing chronic diseases.
Half of Oura’s users now rely on the ring’s data to manage a chronic condition, Ricky Bloomfield, the company’s chief medical officer, said in an interview last fall at Reuters’ MedTech USA conference in Boston.
He noted that Oura has added several features to drive behavior change and facilitate early disease detection.
For example, Oura’s “cardiovascular age” feature uses pulse wave velocity to assess a person’s arterial stiffness, which is often an indicator of heart disease. Oura relies on its own data to compare the stiffness of a user’s arteries to that of their peers, showing a younger age if their arteries are healthier than average or a higher age if they are less healthy.
Bloomfield also highlighted the ring’s “symptom radar” feature, which detects subtle deviations in vital signs.
He added that Ring’s alerts have prompted some users to seek medical attention sooner than they otherwise would have for conditions such as lymphoma and appendicitis. For example, last year, Paralympic athlete Hunter Woodhall received an alert of his Oura ring indicating major signs of illness, which prompted him to seek medical attention. He was diagnosed with appendicitis before his appendix ruptured, allowing him to receive treatment before the situation became dangerous.
Oura’s evolution beyond individual wellness and into the broader health system has accelerated over the past two years. It is pursuing partnerships with payers, such as the Missouri-based Medicare Advantage plan. Health Essencewhich offers members a free ringtone.
The company also partners with other device manufacturers. An example is its partnership with Dexcom – which integrates data from Dexcom’s continuous glucose monitors and Oura’s rings to give users a more comprehensive view of how factors like sleep, stress and activity affect their blood sugar levels.
And last week, Oura joined forces with a sleep health company Resmed. As part of this partnership, Oura users who show signs of nighttime breathing problems through their ring data can access sleep educational resources, screening tools and referrals to healthcare providers through Resmed.
As Oura prepares to debut on the public market, the company is increasingly positioning itself not only as a consumer apparel maker, but also as a broader healthcare platform focused on chronic disease management and early intervention.
Photo: Rudall30, Getty Images
