Oura raises a cool $28 million for its smart wellness ring
Oura has raised a whopping $28 million for its smart wellness ring. The money will be used to expand the number of staff, improve branding efforts and forge new academic research partnerships.
Essential reading: Smart rings: jewellery, meet technology
The news was announced by Oura’s CEO Harpreet Singh Rai today in a medium.com post. The money was raised in a Series B funding round from a trio of investors which include Forerunner Ventures, Square and Gradient Ventures. The first two will get a place on Oura’s board while Gradient Ventures will become a board observer.
A further development is that Dr. Matthew Walker, a professor of neuroscience and psychology at the University of California, Berkeley will join Oura as chief science advisor. He is also a well respected sleep researcher.
Harpreet went on to say that Oura has so far sold over 150,000 rings and grown to around 100 staff globally. Some of the money raised will go to expanding the number of employees. Other funds will go into branding efforts such as a redesigned website, and further research which includes collaboration with academic institutions.
The Oura ring is a popular sleep tracking device. With no buttons to push, it automatically detects and analyzes the quality of your rest and recovery by measuring your heart rate and heart rate variability, respiration rate, body temperature, movement and more.
The second generation ring addresses one of the biggest customer complaints and, at less than half the size of its predecessor, is much slimmer. It also offers a number of new designs to choose from.
The ring is a great option but it does have some competition. It comes in the form of Motiv ring, Ringly and a number of other options. As technology shrinks in size and increases in power, we are sure the competition is only about to get stiffer from here.
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