Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wears one. So does Jack Dorsey who co-founded Twitter. Even Prince Harry and Merck CEO Belén Garijo monitor their health with the smart rings made by Oura. Founded in 2013 in Oulu, Finland, the company is seen as a pioneer in the small wearables market, where experts expect to see strong growth in the coming years. Smart rings are considered more discreet and comfortable than smartwatches – a key advantage, especially for sleep tracking.

That’s why more and more companies are jumping on the smart ring bandwagon, including Samsung with its Galaxy Ring, and Amazon with the Helio Ring. Still, Oura held a commanding 80% market share in 2023, according to researchers at IDC, and doubled its revenue last year to more than 500 million dollars. CEO Tom Hale says the company expects to break the 1 billion dollars mark in 2024. Oura is already profitable and aims to further improve its results this year.

And investors have taken notice. After doubling its valuation to over 5 billion dollars in a funding round last year, Oura's value has now jumped again – to around 11 billion dollars. This new valuation came as part of a Series E funding round, in which the company raised more than 900 million dollars.

The main investor was global asset manager Fidelity. It was joined by Iconiq Capital, a California-based family office that manages the fortunes of wealthy clients from the US tech scene – including Zuckerberg and Dorsey themselves. There were also contributions from Whale Rock Capital Management and Atreides Management, both based in Boston.