Oura has aura

If you’ve ever had the displeasure of finding yourself in the vicinity of an Equinox, you may have noticed everyone wearing thick, metallic rings.

Oura rings, which track everything from users’ sleep to stress levels using high-tech sensors, have exploded in popularity over the past few years as the Silicon Valley crowd has vowed to live forever. Now, Oura is trying to turn all that data on your REM patterns into a public market debut, filing its IPO paperwork with the SEC yesterday.

In the filing, the company revealed that its revenue surged higher than your cortisol levels at your in-laws’ house. In the nine months that ended June 30, revenue jumped 74% to $1.21 billion. Strong sales helped the company reach profitability, earning $60.8 million during that period—far above the $1.6 million it earned in the same period last year.

Oura has a lot going for it: The company has found its customer base to be sticky, with subscription fees—on top of a $349+ original price tag—providing steady recurring revenue. When Oura IPOs, its valuation is expected to surpass the $11 billion it raised in its last fundraising round, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Wellness is doing pretty well

Oura’s prospective debut is the latest sign that a niche corner of the business world—wellness products—is now a behemoth industry. The wellness economy is currently worth $6.8 trillion globally, and is expected to reach $9.8 trillion by 2029, according to the Global Wellness Institute.

But there’s a flip side: Consumer health products are inherently trendy, and fads can go out of style quickly. Another risk is competition, a factor that Oura acknowledged in its filing. One of its most formidable foes in the wearable wellness tracker space is Apple, whose Apple Watch tracks many of the same biometrics as the Oura ring.

Finding a pulse: If the IPO market were wearing a smart ring, it would report that the health of public offerings is bouncing back after taking a summer breather. After a few years of very little IPO activity due to high interest rates, a slew of huge tech IPOs has reinvigorated the once-stalled pipeline.

But good timing won’t be enough to propel Oura’s debut—it will have to stand the test of time, too.—LB