Smart Ring Company Oura says that he has achieved two communicative milestones in the new size class. It has sold a total of one million smart rings to date.
And in the new round of financing, investors are already estimating Oura at € 2.3 billion.
The company has therefore raised more growth finance from private equity investors, but does not yet say how much. An incomplete bulletin sent at short notice is particularly scarce.
The point is, however, that the fundraiser is actually still underway, a member of Oura’s board of directors and a partner in Lifeline Ventures, a private equity firm. Timo Ahopelto says. More new investors are joining the tour, and the company will tell you more about this later.
“Competition for workers is now ruthless, especially in Silicon Valley. You need to bring out the news with constant feed. When nothing has been announced for a while, we wanted to tell you about a million rings sold and that money has been raised, ”Ahopelto explains.
According to Ahopello, this is significant growth funding.
“Now it’s not just about tens of millions of euros,” he says.
The company is also about to announce the appointment of a new CEO in December Harpreet Singh Rain in place of. The company’s interim CEO is the chief operating officer Michael Chapp.
That The Finnish growth company is now estimated at 2.3 billion is a big deal in itself.
An unlisted growth company cannot be directly compared to publicly traded listed companies. But on the Helsinki Stock Exchange, for example, companies such as Cargotec, Outokumpu and Tietoevry would now be in the same size class as Oura.
Oura’s most recently published financial statements are from 2020, and that company, too, published exceptionally late, at the end of 2021. There are therefore no recent financial figures in the light of which the company’s valuation level could be assessed.
According to Ahopello, Oura’s value in the eyes of investors is now boosted in particular by its strong position in its own market and strong growth figures.
“Ourahan is the market leader in its field and the customer base is global. And if you look at the financial figures released for the second year, the company grew at an annual rate of about one hundred percent. That growth rate has now been maintained, ”says Ahopelto.
In more detail, he is now unable to comment on the company’s financial figures.
Oura Health’s result rose to profit in the second year, as net sales grew briskly and the company kept its cost growth in check.
According to the 2020 financial statements, the company’s net sales increased to EUR 57.7 million in the second year from EUR 26.7 million in the previous year.
The operating profit rose to a profit of EUR 1.9 million in the second year, while in 2019 a loss of EUR 1.4 million arose.
A growth rate of 100% would mean that Oura’s turnover last year would have risen to around EUR 115 million.
Read more: The result of the smart ring company Oura reached a profit in the second year
When Oura raised its previous major round of financing in May 2021, it was estimated to be around € 660 million at the time, according to HS Vision. Thus, the value of the company would have more than tripled in a year.
At that time, the company raised EUR 83 million in growth financing.
The value of technology companies like Oura tells us how investors see its potential for growth. So it is more about faith in future growth than it is about current economic figures.
In May In 2021, the company said it had sold half a million rings by then.
In October 2021, Oura launched a new, third-generation ring. With a million rings now sold, the new generation of rings has sold at least hundreds of thousands. According to the company, the new ring model has already been sold more than its predecessors.
Sales were boosted by an offer made to owners of an old generation ring. The company sold the new version of the upgrade rings at half price.
“There was really a lot to upgrade to the new version. Oura is an important device for many users and has been used by many for years. Now many wanted to switch to the new version, ”Ahopelto commented.
Read more: Oura was in trouble. New rings cannot be delivered, customers are raging in Some, the CEO has left and the financial statements are not visible.
Read more: CEO of Oura, a smart ring manufacturer based in Finland, resigns – Consumer reviews criticize third ring version released in autumn
Read more: Oura released the third version of her smart ring. Monthly fee, more sensors and heart rate measurement also during the day.
At the same time, the company is looking to expand its business from equipment sales to monthly subscriptions. Now, new users of Oura will have to pay a monthly fee of six dollars, or about five euros, to access all the content offered by Oura. However, the old ones who bought the new ring by the deadline were promised this service for free.
The strong demand for the new ring and the order spike brought by the offer campaign however, took the company into trouble last fall. Oura’s customer service was clogged with angry customers waiting for their rings and not getting a response to their messages.
According to Ahopello, the company has now fixed these problems and delivery times have returned to normal. The amount of dissatisfied feedback has also decreased.
“We were just under-resourced. It took a while for the company to recruit and train a sufficient number of new personnel for customer service and automate background processes, ”says Ahopelto.
New the ring has also been criticized for being launched before all the new software features promised for it are ready. In the future, with the new Oura ring, it will be possible to monitor your heart rate in the same way as with a heart rate monitor.
According to Ahopello, an active heart rate measurement during training is coming before the summer.
“It’s a feature all our customers now expect. We are now focusing on publishing all the promised features, ”says Ahopelto.
According to Ahopello, the delay in properties has not negatively affected sales figures.
“However, the company is trusted and ready to wait.”
According to the company, the new generation ring measures the quality and recovery of sleep more accurately than its predecessor, it has a more accurate measurement of body temperature and better battery life. For customers with a hormonal cycle, the ring now offers menstrual monitoring and related content.
According to Ahopello, Oura has coped exceptionally well with the difficulties caused by the corona pandemic for the international transportation industry and the shortage of components.
“This has been aided by the long experience of many of the company’s Oulu employees at Nokia and the procurement expertise acquired there,” says Ahopelto.
The company’s management moved to the United States in 2018. In California, the company’s marketing and communications are also handled close to the customer base and the ring’s main market. Oulu still has a significant research and development center in Oura.