Smart ring maker Oura looks to ride recent investments into digital identity market

In the market for wearable devices that use sensors and the internet to track data, facilitate payments and more, would-be smart jewelry has emerged as a distinct subcategory of its own. Digital watches have been around since the 1980s and FitBits laid the template for health and fitness trackers, but smart rings, which aim to pack features into a stylish, understated accessory, have only been around for a few years.

Among brands in the market, the current standard-bearer is Finnish firm Oura, which, according to a report in Business Insider, has sold some 5.5 million devices, and is on course to generate one billion dollars in revenue this year. Celebrities such as Prince Harry and Kim Kardashian have touted the ring’s benefits for fitness and sleep tracking. But, like many biometrics ventures these days, Oura is looking to expand into the area wherein wearables, identity and payments intersect, pitching its rings as the next frontier in secure authentication.

BI quotes Oura’s CEO Tom Hale, who says “the idea is very straightforward: What if this is your key? What if this is your wallet? This is a biometric wearable that can identify you.”

In 2023, Oura acquired Proxy, a U.S. identity tech startup that had previously absorbed smart ring startup Motiv, signaling an interest in authentication use cases for the Oura ring. Hale says Oura is “not suddenly going to become an identity provider,” framing it instead as “additional value of biometric identification and payments as an application.”

The value, however, depends on the functionality, and there are still challenges in integrating an NFC chip into such a small body; Samsung, for one, abandoned ID and payments tech in its Galaxy Ring because of technical hurdles.

That said, Oura has significant backing. In October, it announced that it had raised over 900 million dollars in funding, valuing the company at approximately $11 billion.

Article Topics

biometric authentication  |  biometric identification  |  digital ID  |  digital payments  |  Oura  |  wearables