Oura, smart ring maker, files confidentially for IPO

Oura, which has been named to the CNBC Disruptor 50 list four times, including No. 14 in 2026, was valued at $11 billion in October following a $900 million Series E funding round. The company has raised more than $1.5 billion in total. The company recently reported it is on track to surpass five million paid members this quarter, a fourfold increase over the past two years. That has led to a 4x increase in total revenue over the past two fiscal years, it said. Launched in 2015, Oura's smart ring product has evolved well beyond sleep tracking and now features a variety of features focused on broader health and wellness. In recent years, it has increasingly focused on advancing preventative health through new capabilities, AI, analytics and other features. Oura did not specify the timeline for an IPO, saying it would take place after the SEC completes its review process, subject to market and other conditions. Oura, the maker of the eponymous smart ring that tracks the health and sleep of wearers, has confidentially filed a draft of its IPO prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company announced on Thursday. Last September, Oura announced that it had sold over 5.5 million Oura Rings since the product's launch, up from 2.5 million rings the company said it had sold as of June 2024. CEO Tom Hale told CNBC in November that Oura could generate close to $2 billion in sales in 2026 as it invests in artificial intelligence and international expansion. The company was on track to secure $1 billion in sales in 2025, doubling its 2024 revenue, Hale said. Activity in the IPO market has been somewhat muted since the 2021 boom, but the IPO market is expected to heat up in the U.S., led by the AI theme and the highly anticipated offerings from SpaceX and OpenAI. Last week, AI hardware company Cerebras's Nasdaq listing was the biggest tech offering since Uber's IPO in 2019. According to IPO research and investing firm Renaissance Capital, a total of $28.9 billion has been raised this year across IPOs above the $50 million market cap range, a 146% increase over last year, with a total of 100 deals filed year to date, similar to last year's level. Last year, 202 IPOs raised a total of $44 billion, compared to nearly 400 deals in 2021 that raised over $140 billion. Oura's success has come alongside increased competition and growth in the broader health-focused wearables category. Apple has continued to add health features to the Apple Watch, while Garmin said it saw a 42% increase in fitness product revenue in its first quarter of 2026 compared to last year, because of "strong demand for advanced wearables." Whoop, also named to the 2026 CNBC Disruptor 50 list, raised $575 million in Series G funding at a $10.1 billion valuation in March. Earlier this month, Google announced a new screenless Fitbit that it said "delivers our most in-depth health insights yet." But Oura's ring form, as well as its strong growth, has helped it establish it as one of the category's leaders. The company said recently that it now partners with more than 1,200 health, wellness and commercial brands and organizations, including partnerships with Team USA and U.S. Soccer. Oura recently moved its headquarters from Finland to San Francisco. "We've earned the trust of millions of people around the world to help them understand some of their most personal health signals, including sleep, stress, recovery, women's health, activity, metabolic health and more," Hale said in a recent press release. "We've evolved beyond tracking to deliver actionable health intelligence that helps people better understand their bodies and make more informed decisions for their long-term health."