A smart ring drives a valuation of $78 billion.
How much market potential can a smart ring weighing only a few grams bring?
Recently, Oura, a dark - horse smart ring manufacturer from Finland, announced a new round of massive financing of $900 million. The investment was led by Fidelity Management & Research Company, and international capital institutions such as ICONIQ, Whale Rock, and Atreides participated in the investment for the first time. After this round of financing, the company's valuation soared to $11 billion (about 78.3 billion RMB), more than doubling its valuation from the previous round of financing in December last year. According to internal data, since 2015, 5.5 million Oura Rings have been sold, including 3 million last year alone, with revenues reaching $500 million. Revenues are expected to reach $1 billion by 2025.
Meanwhile, well - known sports brand Reebok announced its official entry into the health technology field and launched its first smart ring. In September, Dreame unveiled its first AI smart ring at a full - scenario new product launch event. Since the online and offline pre - sales started on October 1st across all platforms, the sales of this product have exceeded 10 million, setting a new sales record for high - end smart wearable devices during the same period.
Compared with the more familiar smart bracelets, smart rings are smaller in size, more convenient to wear, and free from the restrictive feeling of bracelets. Moreover, the pulse signal on the finger is stronger, making the data more reliable than that on the wrist. These advantages endow smart rings with differentiated competitive advantages. Nowadays, from startups reaching a valuation of over $1 billion, to well - known brands entering the market through cross - border expansion, and to the sales of terminal products exceeding 10 million, all indicate that the smart ring market has entered a new stage and is becoming the new king in the entire wearable device industry.
Smart Ring Manufacturers Adopt Different Strategies
Against the backdrop of the rapid development of the smart ring market, different companies are forming unique competitive paths based on their own strategies and technological advantages:
Oura: Deeply Explore Niche Health Scenarios
From the very beginning, functions related to "health" have been the key to Oura's popularity among users.
Health is a broad concept, and Oura's initial approach was different from most products: the key to health is not more activity, but sleep. In Oura's early promotions, it always emphasized a statistic: less than 5% of the population exercises regularly, while over 95% of people need to sleep every night. Since sleep is a daily habit closely related to health, lack of sleep can lead to diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer's disease, cancer, and mental illness. When the company launched its first - generation Oura Ring in 2015, the Stanford Research Institute purchased two rings from Kickstarter and found in its research that the Oura Ring was the most accurate wearable device for measuring sleep quality and sleep stages.
Over the years, the Oura Ring has undergone continuous iterations. Today, Oura not only provides isolated statistical data but also integrates multiple data streams - sleep, readiness, and activity - and extends its new functions to areas such as cardiovascular, metabolic, and reproductive health. The latest updated functions include blood glucose monitoring, Oura Advisor, diet recording, cardiovascular age, fertile window, pregnancy insights, health discovery, cardiopulmonary capacity, stress monitoring, symptom radar, and resilience assessment.
This means that users can clearly see how late - night eating affects blood sugar, how stress affects recovery, or how sleep patterns match the menstrual cycle or pregnancy stage. By integrating these insights into an intuitive app, Oura helps users connect lifestyle choices, recovery status, cardiovascular health, and hormonal balance.
Image source: Oura
To make its health monitoring functions attractive enough, Oura pays particular attention to the accuracy and credibility of the monitoring results. Although Oura is not a medical device, its accuracy has been verified by strict scientific standards, for example:
Sleep staging algorithm: Oura's sleep staging algorithm has a 79% agreement rate with polysomnography (PSG - the gold standard for sleep tests) in the four stages (awake, light sleep, deep sleep, and REM sleep). In contrast, the average agreement rate of most wrist - worn devices is only 60 - 65%.
Resting heart rate and heart rate variability (HRV): A recent peer - reviewed independent study found that the third - and fourth - generation Oura Rings showed the strongest consistency in HRV and resting heart rate measurements.
Body temperature trend monitoring: Compared with research - grade sensors, the Oura Ring's body temperature detection accuracy exceeds 99%, and it can capture tiny changes as small as 0.13°C.
Advantages of wearing on the finger: More and more research evidence shows that wearable devices worn on the finger usually have higher performance and wearing comfort. The finger has rich blood flow and high blood vessel density, providing stronger and more stable physiological signals, making it the preferred location for high - precision physiological monitoring.
After obtaining the new round of financing, Oura will also strive for higher goals. One of the key directions is to develop "non - invasive blood glucose trend monitoring", and to recruit more medical data scientists to train "health models for specific populations", such as "health monitoring models for the elderly" and "health management models for pregnant women".
Reebok: Focus on Fitness Scenarios
Reebok has always been a sports/training brand rather than a pure technology or health monitoring brand. This makes its smart ring more like a "training aid" in positioning. After reviewing the official website information, the author found that Reebok clearly positions the device as "train harder, recover faster, and grow smarter" - integrating training, recovery, and growth.
Image source: Reebok official website
In gyms, training camps, and group classes, coaches and members value "training effects + recovery performance" more than just "sleep quality" or "step count". Reebok's brand positioning is thus more in line with this niche demand. Although Reebok's smart ring also has functions such as sleep, heart rate, and stress monitoring, different from Oura which emphasizes medical significance, Reebok's smart ring focuses more on real - time feedback on exercise load and recovery status, helping coaches and members judge the training rhythm and avoid over - fatigue. This can be seen from the function description on its official website:
Sleep tracking: Every stage of sleep, including light sleep, deep sleep, and REM sleep, will be tracked, allowing you to understand your actual rest situation in detail. You can view your sleep score and data - driven guidance after waking up, enabling smarter training and smoother recovery.
Skin temperature trend: During sleep, the body's internal signals are clearly visible. Reebok's smart ring can detect changes in your baseline body temperature at night. These changes may indicate early signs of illness, hormonal changes, or over - training.
Stress monitoring: Reebok's smart ring uses heart rate variability (HRV) and resting heart rate as references to help users manage rising stress levels.
By integrating key dimensions such as training, activity, sleep, and recovery into one ring and providing an "overall score" for coaches and members to quickly understand the status, it is easier to use in daily training decisions (such as whether to conduct high - intensity training or whether a recovery day is needed). For members, they can monitor their training load, sleep status, and recovery level through the ring to determine whether they are suitable for continuing high - intensity training or need adjustment. For coaches, if they can refer to the members' recovery status before/after training, they can arrange training plans/rest cycles more accurately, improving the coaching effect.
Dreame: Emphasize Active Interaction
Compared with Oura and Reebok, which focus on niche scenarios, Dreame has made great efforts in the interaction between smart rings and users.
Nowadays, health management has become a daily necessity, but traditional wearable devices that are bulky and require frequent data checking cannot meet users' needs for "convenience + consideration". The breakthrough of Dreame's AI smart ring lies in the word "vibration": it completely breaks away from the limitation of traditional smart rings that "passively wait for users to check on the app" and redefines the relationship between people and devices through active interaction perception.
Image source: Dreame
The implementation of the ring's three core scenarios all emphasizes the keyword "active companionship":
Sleep protection: Instead of being disturbed by the sharp alarm of a mobile phone, the ring gently wakes you up from your fingertips with a gradual vibration. At the same time, it is equipped with three sensors for heart rate variability (HRV), blood oxygen saturation (SpO₂), and body movement detection, silently recording your sleep cycle and allowing you to know your sleep quality as soon as you wake up.
Health monitoring: The ring is equipped with three sensors for heart rate, blood oxygen, and body temperature, tracking your health data and long - term trends 24/7. When your heart rate fluctuates abnormally, the exclusive vibration tactile feedback will remind you in real - time, eliminating the need to frequently check your phone and keeping you informed of your health signals at all times.
Life assistant: It supports customized vibration reminders for sitting for too long, drinking water, taking medicine, etc. It can also be intelligently connected through touch. You can turn the pages of a PPT, switch music, take a remote selfie, or turn the pages of an e - book by simply touching the ring, making your hands free and your life more convenient.
The person in charge of Dreame's AI smart hardware said that behind the initial achievement of over ten million orders is consumers' recognition of the product's core value of "wearing without awareness, caring with feeling".
Speaking of interaction, recently a new type of smart ring called Prolo Ring has also attracted wide attention. This device features gesture interaction and can precisely control a computer through a built - in touchpad and a six - axis motion sensor, even completely replacing a mouse. Users can move the cursor by sliding their thumb on the surface of the ring and perform complex operations with preset or customized gestures. Currently, this product has launched a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter with a starting price of $99.
The Business Model is Gradually Maturing
In the wearable device industry, smart rings are evolving from a "novel gadget" to one of the fastest - growing niche categories in the health technology industry. Different from the early smart bracelets that relied on sales volume in the "red ocean of hardware", new - generation smart ring manufacturers are building a data - centric business model, transforming from one - time transactions to long - term service relationships. Whether it is Oura from Finland with a soaring valuation of $11 billion or Reebok's smart ring centered around a membership system, they jointly outline the business potential for the next stage of wearable devices: hardware is just the starting point, and data is the end goal.
First of all, the most obvious change comes from the structural upgrade of the business model - from "selling devices" to "selling insights". Oura pioneered the "hardware sales + subscription service" model. The ring is priced at about 399 euros, but a monthly subscription fee of 5.99 euros is required to fully access the application. Currently, about 20% of Oura Ring's revenue comes from subscriptions. Oura's app not only provides sleep and activity monitoring but also offers personalized health insights, recovery suggestions, and metabolic and cardiovascular trend analysis based on cloud algorithms through "membership services". Users pay a monthly or annual subscription fee to obtain a health profile that evolves over time. This "hardware + service" dual - layer structure gives manufacturers more stable cash flow and deeper user stickiness. More importantly, data accumulation provides Oura with a feedback loop for continuous improvement of algorithms and models: the more data is collected, the more accurate the algorithms become, the more users trust the product, and the higher the renewal rate. Therefore, the essence of the smart ring has evolved from a "device" to a "health data platform", and subscriptions have become a key link in extending the enterprise's value.
Similarly, Reebok's smart ring is priced at $249. Each purchase of a Reebok smart ring comes with a one - year membership to the Reebok Fitness App, allowing users to access over 1000 hours of fitness and health content. The "hardware + content + service" model is conducive to extending the user's life cycle, shifting from simple hardware sales to a "continuous service" model.
Meanwhile, smart rings are also expanding from personal consumer products to the service field of enterprise - level health cooperation. For example, Reebok has established a global partnership with F45 Training, a boutique fitness chain. The plan is to closely connect the F45 community through Reebok's sports equipment. This cooperation means that coaches/members (F45's community training users) will be the first to use the ring, forming an ecosystem that combines a "training community + device".
Oura's acquisition of Sparta Science in 2024 was also aimed at strengthening its capabilities in enterprise health management and scientific research applications. Through its "Oura for Business" platform, enterprises can provide team - level health monitoring and recovery analysis for employees or athletes. Currently, Oura's largest institutional customer is the US Department of Defense, which has distributed tens of thousands of rings to military personnel to track fatigue levels. Although its CEO emphasized that this contract only accounts for a small portion of its global revenue. Essence Healthcare in the US even packages Oura rings with its membership health plans, forming a welfare system of "wearable + medical services". Oura has also partnered with the virtual medical consultation platform Maven Clinic, allowing data such as sleep and heart rate variability collected by the ring to directly enter the female health management process.
The business appeal of the B2B path lies in that it not only increases the average customer price and the renewal cycle but also enables manufacturers to build a moat through platform - level data accumulation. Elite sports teams, enterprise health plans, scientific research institutions, and gyms are becoming new growth engines for smart ring manufacturers. The ring serves as a data collection terminal, while algorithms, reports, API interfaces, and data analysis services are the core products. For enterprise customers, these devices are not just monitoring tools but intelligent decision - making systems for performance and health management. For manufacturers, it is a key channel to break away from the cyclical fluctuations of consumer products and move towards long - term service revenue.
Conclusion
In general, the smart ring industry is evolving from "wearable" to "insight - able". With the improvement of AI algorithm accuracy, the miniaturization of sensors, and the enhancement of biological signal interpretation capabilities, these products will no longer be just terminals for collecting health data but will become key nodes connecting individual health management, sports guidance, medical intervention, and emotional regulation. Whether it is the continuous revenue model driven by subscription services or the ecological expansion centered around enterprise cooperation, smart rings are building a new health economy system with data as the link and insights as the value. The real competition lies not in who can make a smaller ring but in who can understand the "data mine" of the human body.