The Oura Ring 4
Courtesy: Oura
LISBON — Samsung’s foray into smart rings is not in regards to the boss of the product category’s pioneer, Oura — actually, Tom Hale says he’s seeing a lift in business.
“I’m sure that a significant tech company making an announcement saying: ‘Hey, it is a category that matters. It’ll be something that is big.’ I feel it’s probably helpful,” Hale told CNBC in an interview this week.
“When it comes to the impact on our business, it has made zero impact. If anything, our business has gotten stronger since their announcement.”
In a wide-ranging interview with CNBC on the Web Summit conference in Lisbon, Hale discussed Oura’s plans for brand spanking new areas of insight it wants to provide users, how he’s excited about latest devices and the corporate’s intentions for international expansion.
Oura’s flagship product is the Oura Ring 4, a tool referred to as a sensible ring. It’s filled with sensors that may track some health metrics, allowing Oura app users to learn more in regards to the quality of their sleep or how ready they’re to tackle the day ahead.
Founded in Finland in 2013, the corporate has been called a pioneer by analysts within the smart ring space. Oura said it has sold greater than 2.5 million of its rings because it launched its first product. CCS Insight forecasts Oura will end the yr with a 49% market share in smart rings.
Competition is beginning to rear its head within the space. The world’s largest smartphone maker Samsung made its first enterprise into smart rings this yr with the Galaxy Ring, which some analysts say has put the device category on the map and popularized it with a broader audience.
Hale is keen to position Oura as a “health company and a science company from the get-go,” with the aim of its product being “clinical grade.” Oura is searching for approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its ring for use for diagnostics, although Hale declined to offer too many further details.
He did say that Oura’s concentrate on health and science is what sets it other than competitors.
“In case you’re actually considering [of] yourself as a healthcare company, it is rather different in some ways and different postures you may take towards data privacy. … So as an alternative of being like a tech company where data is a few kind of oil to be extracted after which used to create some form of advantage of network effects, we’re really a healthcare company where your data is sacrosanct,” Hale said.
Oura’s business model relies on selling the hardware, in addition to on a $5.99 monthly subscription service that permits users to get the insights from their ring. Oura says it has nearly 2 million subscribers.
“We glance more like a software company than we do seem like a hardware company. And I feel that is a function of the business model, and the indisputable fact that it’s working. Our subscribers are continuing to pay,” Hale said.
Oura eyes nutrition as next ‘pillar’
Oura takes the information gathered by the ring to offer insight to its users, focused on an individual’s levels of sleep, activity and readiness to tackle the day.
Hale said the corporate is now testing out nutrition, with users capable of take an image of their meal and log it into the Oura app. Also within the nutrition space, he highlighted Oura’s recent acquisition of Veri, a metabolic health startup that may take data from continuous glucose monitors — small devices inserted into an individual’s arm — to provide insight into someone’s blood sugar levels. Hale says that this, combined with Oura’s food tracking feature, could tell a user how certain meals affect their glucose levels.
Many glucose monitors today are invasive and should be inserted into the skin. Some observers see a non-invasive glucose monitor on wearable gear as something that might be transformative — but Hale warns it is a difficult goal to attain.
“The concept a wearable [device] will get there, I feel, has definitely been a Holy Grail, and just like the Holy Grail, they could never find it, since it’s a really difficult problem to unravel with any form of accuracy,” Hale said.
“Never say never. Definitely, technology continues to advance and all of the capabilities proceed to advance,” he added.
Latest hardware and AI
While Oura only sells rings currently, Hale sees the corporate developing latest products in the long run. He declined to elaborate.
“I feel we’ll undoubtedly see other Oura-branded products, beyond the ring,” he promised.
He also said the corporate hopes to work with other devices as well, even in the event that they should not Oura’s own hardware.
Like many hardware corporations, reminiscent of Apple and Samsung, Oura is taking a look at ways it could actually use the advancing capabilities of artificial intelligence to provide users more personalized insights. Smartphone makers have spoken about so-called “AI agents,” which they see as assistants which can be capable of anticipate what a user wants.
Oura is testing out an AI product called Oura Advisor in the same vein.
“Consider it because the doctor in your pocket that knows all the information about you,” Hale said.
International push
Hale‘s presence on the Web Summit in Lisbon underscores his push to lift Oura’s brand awareness in markets outside of the U.S., especially as more people study smart rings.
“I feel the purpose in regards to the category being something that folks are learning about, the unique advantages of that maturity, is in our favor. We’re expanding internationally,” Hale said.
He said he is especially “excited” about venturing into Western Europe, including in countries just like the U.K., Germany, France and Italy. Looking even further forward, Hale said an initial public offering for the business is just not currently on the table, adding that operating as a non-public company gives Oura more “freedom.”
“I actually benefit from the freedom that we get as a non-public company. We’re accountable to our investors and our shareholders, but they’re willing to allow us to operate with rather a lot license,” he said. “And if we decided we desired to turn unprofitable because we wanted to speculate in owning some category of healthcare software, it’ll be advantageous. They might be blissful for that.”
