Oura has filed for an IPO with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the smart ring maker confirmed last week.
The company has yet to disclose the number of shares it will be offering, as well as the price range for the proposed IPO.
Finland-based Oura has raised $1.5 billion in capital since it was founded in 2013. Its most recent funding round occurred last October, when the company snagged $900 million to expand its capabilities and expand its scale across the globe. That 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 insights and guidance related to sleep, activity, stress and fertility. In September, Oura announced that it had surpassed 5.5 million rings sold.
Its mission has evolved over the years — beginning as a sleep-focused wellness startup and now having grown into a business that is carving out a role in health improvement and chronic condition management.
Half of Oura users now rely on the ring’s data to help manage a chronic condition, said Ricky Bloomfield, the company chief medical officer, during an interview last fall at Reuters’ MedTech USA conference in Boston.
He noted that Oura has added several features to prompt behavior change and aid early disease detection.
For instance, Oura’s “cardiovascular age” feature uses pulse wave velocity to assess someone’s arterial stiffness, which is often an indicator of cardiac 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 an older age if they are less healthy.
Bloomfield also highlighted the ring’s “symptom radar” function, which detects subtle deviations in vital signs.
He added that ring’s alerts have prompted some users to seek medical care earlier than they otherwise would have for conditions including lymphoma and appendicitis. For example, last year, Paralympian Hunter Woodhall received an alert from his Oura ring indicating major signs of illness, which prompted him to see a doctor. He was diagnosed with appendicitis before his appendix ruptured, allowing him to receive care before the situation became dangerous.
Oura’s move beyond individual wellness and into the broader healthcare system accelerated over the past couple of years. It is pursuing partnerships with payers, such as Missouri-based Medicare Advantage plan Essence Healthcare, which provides members with a free ring.
The company also teams up with other device makers. One example is its partnership with Dexcom — which integrates data from both 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 sleep health company Resmed. Under the partnership, Oura users who experience signs of nighttime breathing disturbances through their ring data can access sleep education resources, screening tools and referrals to healthcare providers through Resmed.
As Oura prepares for its public market debut, the company is increasingly positioning itself not just as a consumer wearable maker, but as a broader healthcare platform focused on chronic disease management and earlier intervention.
Photo: rudall30, Getty Images
