Company moves to 12.5M€ in total private funding and appoints new board members with US industry expertise for latest growth phase  

Oura Health, the Finnish health technology company behind the Oura ring, has moved its total private funding to 12.5M€ after the closure of a round led by US-based Bold Capital Partners and Finland”s Tesi. The funding will be used to scale US market operations and push the Oura platform forward.

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The Oura ring and app guides wearers towards better sleep, recovery and readiness to perform by analyzing the body”s sleep, activity levels, daily rhythms and physiological responses.

Former Oura Health CEO Petteri Lahtela will focus on developing new products and services in his new roles as Oura Health President and Chief Innovation Officer while continuing his position on the Oura Health board. Former Ouraring Inc. President Harpreet Rai has been appointed as the new Oura Health CEO, with US industry specialists Stephen Friend and Kevin Lin also joining the Oura Health board.

‘The successful launch of the new Oura ring shows the level of innovation and craftsmanship that Oura Health is capable of. Moving forward, our main goal is to drive awareness and sales in our largest market, while doubling down on the very innovation that brought us here in the first place,‘ says Harpreet Rai, CEO of Oura Heath.

‘I have great respect for Harpreet. He knows the US market and can lead us towards growth and greater market penetration. I”m excited for this next phase for Oura, and am looking forward to focusing on new innovative products and services which I am most passionate about,‘ says Oura Health CIO Petteri Lahtela.

Oura Health CEO Harpreet Rai previously led investments in technology, media and telecom at New York-based Hedge Fund Eminence Capital. He is joined on Oura”s board by Twitch Co-founder and former COO Kevin Lin, and M.D., Ph.D. Stephen H. Friend, Chairman of the Board and Past-President of Sage Bionetworks, a non-profit organization that provides the tools and environment to conduct dynamic, large-scale collaborative biomedical research. Approximately 60% of active Oura users and pre-orders for the new Oura ring originate from the US.

‘Oura has built an extremely capable team that combines and harnesses technological, commercial and design expertise. There has been strong demand for the new ring. Meanwhile, both operative and governance changes within the company will boost Oura”s growth and development. Finland is home to a number of international brands famous for products and services based on biometric measuring. Oura has all the resources needed to join this elite band,‘ says Jussi Sainiemi, Investment Director at Tesi.

‘We have succeeded in creating a new category within wearables. We combined science, technology and design with ultimate wearing comfort. Bringing sleep and recovery from daily mental and physical strain into the core of the user experience with the first generation Oura ring was the right choice. Our users are very committed and our retention rates are much higher compared to wearables in general. We need to continue innovating in all areas to maintain our pioneering position,‘ concludes Lahtela.

Mr. Kevin Lin, the co-founder and former COO of Twitch, has been appointed chairman of the board. He brings along his vast experience in scaling teams, building communities, growing sales and developing monetization strategies based on his experience at Twitch. He also notably raised multiple rounds of funding and delivered significant shareholder value with Twitch”s exit to Amazon. 

M.D., Ph.D. Stephen H. Friend is the Chairman of the Board and Past-President of Sage Bionetworks, a non-profit organization that provides the tools and environment to conduct dynamic, large-scale collaborative biomedical research. Dr. Friend was most recently at Apple Inc. where he worked on ways to impact people”s lives in health and disease. Currently he”s designing a virtual institute to explore fundamental issues around how to make individual symptom predictions and how to return agency to individuals so they might navigate their own paths between health and disease. 

Harpreet Rai is based in San Francisco and has a long background in finance. He was previously at Eminence Capital for 9 years, a multi-billion dollar hedge fund in New York City, where he led investments in technology, media and telecom. Prior to Eminence, Harpreet was at Morgan Stanley in their M&A group. Harpreet Rai joined Ouraring Inc., Oura Health”s US subsidiary, as President in 2017 and succeeds Petteri Lahtela as the new CEO, effective June 1st, 2018.   

About Oura Health Ltd. 

Oura Health Ltd. is a Finnish health technology company founded in 2013. Oura is the world”s first wellness ring and app that shows how your body responds to your lifestyle by analyzing your sleep, activity levels, daily rhythms and the physiological responses in your body. Personalized for you, Oura guides you towards better sleep, recovery and readiness to perform. Oura has users in over 60 countries, and several top universities, research organizations, sleep clinics, and companies are utilizing the data and insights Oura provides.

In addition to the CES 2016 Best of Innovation Award, Oura Health has received among others the Fitness Award of the American Women”s Health Magazine in May 2016. In 2017, Oura Health was selected as the Best Health/Lifestyle Startup in Finland at the Nordic Startup Awards. Oura Health Ltd.”s HQ and major manufacturing facilities are located in Oulu, Finland. Other locations include Helsinki and San Francisco. For more information, visit http://www.ouraring.com.

About BOLD Capital Partners 

BOLD Capital Partners (‘BOLD’), is a venture capital firm targeting investments in early stage and growth technology companies. BOLD is particularly interested in entrepreneurial leaders that leverage exponential technologies to transform the world and create innovative solutions to humanities” grand challenges. The investment platform leverages the resources of Singularity University and the Peter Diamandis ecosystem to actively seek and support world-class entrepreneurs. BOLD has offices in Santa Monica and Palo Alto, California.

About Tesi 

Tesi (Finnish Industry Investment Ltd) is a venture capital and private equity company that accelerates companies” success stories by investing in them directly and via funds. Tesi always invests together with other investors, providing them with access to high quality deal-flow in Finland. Our investments under management total €1.2 billion and we have altogether 700 companies in portfolio. http://www.tesi.fi and @TesiFII

For additional information

Media kit with pictures

John Cozzi
press@ouraring.com

Video:  https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/717286/Oura_Health_Sleep.mp4

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Video: 
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OULU, Finland, July 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ —

MarketNewsUpdates.com News Commentary 

Apple”s CEO Tim Cook declared in 2015 that ‘the future of TV is Apps,’ he was referencing a future where a majority of TV viewing is streamed over-the-top (OTT) via online apps. As the OTT market develops and households begin streaming content across an increasing number of OTT apps, user experience will likely become more important. When it comes to user experience, the streaming device hardware is secondary to the software platform. The expansive web subscription and digital content industry is turning into a highly competitive landscape as its mass appeal and revenue potential is realized by various media giants around the world. This is especially true as it relates to digital video streaming, as traditional cable methods are being exchanged for on-demand digital content. The global over-the-top (OTT) devices and services market is expected to reach USD $165.13 billion by 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. Growing investments in network infrastructure due to the increasing number of OTT subscribers are likely to work in favor of the market, says the report, while rapid advancements in compression, transmission, and watermarking technologies are encouraging telecom providers to add IPTV to their service offerings. Active companies today include: QYOU Media Inc. (TSX-V: QYOU) (OTC: QYOUF), News Corporation (NASDAQ: NWSA), Gannett Co. Inc. (NYSE: GCI), The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT), Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX).

QYOU Media Inc. (TSXV: QYOU.V) (OTCPK: QYOUF) BREAKING NEWS: QYOU Media, the world”s leading curator of premium ”best-of-the-web” video for multiscreen distribution has announced a partnership with Frequency, the cloud-based internet video platform that manages and distributes video from hundreds of the world”s top providers.

The OTT market is expected to be worth $117 billion by 2025, driven by growing demand for application-based services and accessibility through mobile devices. Frequency offers a flexible and data rich distribution platform for both traditional and next generation content providers, such as Cheddar and Jukin Media. To further bolster the digital-first content and targeted millennial programming available to its customer base, Frequency has selected The QYOU”s expertly curated short-form video content to add to the service.

Through the Frequency platform, QYOU”s content will be available via Frequency”s world leading pay TV operators, including on set top boxes, through TV Everywhere experiences, and via IP apps. Frequency is already powering pay TV operators in the US and Europe with over 30 million subscribers. This extends QYOU”s ability to reach millennial and gen-Z consumers on any device, at any time.

‘Frequency has been pushing forward the distribution of premium digital first content for many years. The service”s partnerships with established Pay TV operators around the world combined with their ability to help speed our creation, launch and data collection around custom channels and programming makes this partnership another valuable addition to our growing global distribution,’ stated Curt Marvis, CEO and Co-founder of QYOU Media.

Blair Harrison, Frequency CEO added: ‘We are dedicated to expanding distribution reach and monetization opportunities for top providers of premium digital content. Adding QYOU and its strong catalog of international and localized content to our growing platform reinforces our commitment that Frequency is an essential partner for Pay TV and other video platform operators worldwide.’ Read this and more news for QYOU Media at: http://www.marketnewsupdates.com/news/qyou.html

In other industry news and developments:

News Corporation (NASDAQ: NWSA) came to a close up 2.16% at $15.62on Tuesday afternoon with more than 1.3 million shares traded by the market close. News Corporation is a global, diversified media and information services company focused on creating and distributing authoritative and engaging content to consumers throughout the world. The company comprises businesses across a range of media, including: news and information services, book publishing, digital real estate services, and cable network programming and pay-TV distribution in Australia. Headquartered in New York, the activities of News Corp are conducted primarily in the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom. In recent developments, Matt Murray has been named Editor-in-Chief of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires, succeeding Gerard Baker, who is to take up a new position as the Journal”s Editor-at-Large, which will include regular writing, hosting the paper”s expanding network of conferences and events, and television presenting. Mr. Murray is currently Executive Editor of the Journal. Dow Jones is a division of News Corp (NASDAQ: NWS)

Gannett Co. Inc. (NYSE: GCI) recently announced it entered into an agreement to acquire WordStream, Inc. (‘WordStream’), a provider of cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions for local and regional businesses and agencies to optimize their digital marketing services campaigns. The purchase price is $130 million in cash, net of cash acquired, plus up to an aggregate $20 million earnout payable in 2019 and 2020 based on achieving certain revenue targets. The transaction builds upon Gannett”s existing data-driven digital marketing services, ReachLocal and SweetIQ. ‘This acquisition marks another critical milestone in Gannett”s digital transformation, enhancing our ability to support businesses and agencies in our local markets with the intelligent, data-driven marketing solutions they need to drive growth,’ said Robert Dickey, president and chief executive officer of Gannett. ‘WordStream”s technology, extensive data and analytics capabilities together with an experienced executive team will bring tremendous value to Gannett”s expanding digital marketing services business.’

The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT) came to a close on Tuesday at $23.45 up 1.96% with more than 1.3 million shares traded by the market close. It was recently announced that FX has landed the first-run North American rights to The New York Times”s first major foray into TV news, called The Weekly, in partnership with Hulu, which will be the exclusive SVOD streaming home to new episodes of the series the day after air. The announcement was made today by John Landgraf, CEO of FX Networks and FX Productions. In addition to the FX linear telecast and Hulu, episodes will also be available on FX”s VOD services, FXNOW (with commercials) and FX+ (commercial-free) to authenticated subscribers. This marks FX”s first entry in the ongoing weekly news genre and the network has committed to a minimum of 30 episodes with the series scheduled to premiere later this year. The series is produced by The New York Times and Left/Right, a Red Arrow Studios company. WME represented the project.

Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) closed up 1.10% on Tuesday with over 8.3 million shares traded on the day. In the news: A lot goes on in an internet minute. Americans have increased their usage of internet data by 18% this year, according to cloud-based operating system Domo, which annually takes a one-minute snapshot to illustrate the popularity and growth of online activity on media, social, technology and retail applications. The numbers are big. In that typical minute, Americans use 3.128 billion gigabytes of internet data, up 18% from 2017. Video is a big deal online. In a typical minute, American consumers streamed 97,222 hours of video on Netflix, up 40% from a year ago. YouTube users watched 4,333,560 videos, up from 4,146,600 in 2017. Four hundred hours of video are uploaded to YouTube in the typical minute.

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