Smart ring maker Oura picks up $75M series D, inks strategic partnership with Dexcom

Oura is partnering with medical device maker Dexcom to integrate data from glucose biosensors with the Oura Ring, which tracks sleep, heart rate and activity. 

Oura also picked up $75 million from Dexcom in a series D funding round, valuing the company at more than $5 billion, the company announced Tuesday.

The company, which launched out of Finland as a sleep tracking smart ring in 2015, has now sold 2.5 million rings. It expects to see annual sales double in 2024 to roughly $500 million, and the company is profitable, according to Oura CEO Tom Hale.

Oura plans to use the $75 million in fresh funding to expand its footprint in international markets and to fuel M&A, Hale told Fierce Healthcare.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, in May 2021, the company banked a $100 million series C funding round led by a diverse mix of healthcare, consumer and sports investors, including The Chernin Group and Elysian Park, the investment arm of the LA Dodgers.

The two companies will launch integrations enabling data to flow between Dexcom products, including glucose biosensors and apps, and the Oura Ring and its app, the companies said. The first app integration resulting from the partnership is expected to launch in the first half of 2025.

As part of this integration, consumers who use both Dexcom glucose biosensors, including its over-the-counter product Stelo, and the Oura Ring can track their glucose levels and understand the impact of behaviors and biology on their metabolic health.

The Oura Ring's sensors collect data on more than 20 biometrics like heart rate, heart rate variability, blood oxygen levels, body temperature, menstrual cycles and movement to track metrics like sleep patterns and activity levels. The company now has more than 1 million members.

The partnership builds on Oura's metabolic health roadmap, executives said. Last month, the company bought Sparta Science, an enterprise software company that developed a platform to collect and analyze health and fitness data from third-party sources. In 2022, the company launched its employer-focused wellness arm, Oura for Business.

The company also is broadening its ambitions with payers, seeing the potential to engage older seniors with digital health technology. During the HLTH 2024 conference in October, the company unveiled a unique partnership with Essence Healthcare, a provider of Medicare Advantage plans, to provide some MA plan members with an Oura Ring device and its app at no cost. 

In September, Oura acquired Veri, a personalized metabolic health company.

The acquisition of Veri was "one of the pieces of the puzzle that made it interesting and compelling to partner with Dexcom," Hale told Fierce Healthcare in an interview. Dexcom launching a OTC wearable product that makes glucose monitoring more accessible to consumers also opened up opportunities, he said.

"What we saw in our customer base, and this was ultimately why we acquired Veri and are partnering with Dexcom, our customer base is really thirsty for this kind of sensing and knowledge and insights about nutrition," Hale said.

Ninety-seven percent of Oura members have expressed interest in understanding how the food they eat impacts their health, Hale noted. About 23% of Oura members have worn a CGM.

"That appetite is being fueled by the prices coming down a bit and the barrier being removed to make this something that's more accessible for folks," Hale said.

With the $75 million in fresh funding, Oura is looking at M&A opportunities to expand its capabilities.

"I think this metabolic space is really interesting. As we look towards, call it more purely healthcare-type applications, I think there's certainly things in the space that we've kept our eye on and are monitoring," Hale said. "I think there's also interesting things that are more bolt-on technologies that we're also tracking. Veri was a perfect example. They were a partner and they were using our API. They were already experts in the space. It was a very high-quality team and technology. We thought it was a logical fit. I like that approach to M&A."

Hale said there are no plan to take Oura public right now.

"I think we've grown so quickly that we've got some work to do to make sure we're ready to go public," he said.

Dexcom partnership integrates glucose, health data

The integration of Dexcom's glucose data and the Oura ring's health tracking data will help Oura members decide what and when to eat by surfacing correlations between activities like sleep and exercise and members’ glucose levels, Hale noted.

"And because we know that people are affected differently by the same foods and activities, guidance and insights will be personalized," he said.

The companies plan to co-market and cross-sell each other’s products. 

“Dexcom offers the most accurate glucose biosensing systems on the market that help reveal the impact of daily lifestyle choices on glucose levels and enable our users to make informed decisions about their health and overall well-being,” said Matt Dolan, executive vice president of strategy and corporate development at Dexcom, in a statement. “Partnering with ŌURA gives us the opportunity to redefine the category again, integrating data from Dexcom glucose biosensors with the continuous insights and metrics measured by Oura Ring. This powerful combination will attract new shared customers who want to better understand the link between activity, sleep, nutrition, and their glucose.”

Strategic partnerships that combine medical-grade technology with advanced software are driving forward the consumerization of healthcare, the companies said, allowing consumers to drive their health journeys and empowering them with their own health information. 

The partnership with Dexcom also could hint at where Oura wants to go with its health tracking capabilities.

"Today, Oura is a standalone product, but I think we see a universe where the product experience includes all sorts of health data and health inputs and lots of different sensors, including CGMs," Hale said. "I think this partnership is a great example of accelerating that vision. We are science and research-forward, and I think there's lots to be learned. A lot of the glucose and the CGM science is based around diabetes. There's certainly going to be a large number of folks who are pre-diabetic who would fit into the category of people who might be interested in this combined solution. But, I think there's lots of things to be learned about other conditions or other circumstances that are just going to be really interesting to explore."