SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ŌURA, the company behind Oura Ring, the smart ring that delivers accurate, personalized health data, insights, and daily guidance into sleep, activity, readiness, and recovery, today announced the launch of ŌURA For Business, an evolved wellness solution that enables organizations to understand and improve the health and wellbeing of their people. ŌURA For Business uses best-in-class connected technology and personalized insights to improve mental and physical wellbeing on the individual level, while equipping leaders with custom tools and tailored recommendations to improve health outcomes for the collective. By leveraging Oura Ring data to reveal compelling group-level insights, ŌURA For Business addresses individual outcomes with real-world impacts like burnout, fatigue, performance optimization, illness detection, and health management.
The ŌURA For Business umbrella encompasses specialized offerings for business corporations, employee wellness, healthcare, higher education, athletics, and the military. Across the board, stress, burnout, and sleep deprivation have never been more prevalent or costly. ŌURA is rooted in sleep because the impacts of sleep deprivation on individuals and organizations can’t be overstated. Rest is the foundation on which wellness is built, and without it, people’s wellbeing is at stake.
“ŌURA For Business fundamentally improves how organizations of all kinds can support their people,” said Tom Hale, ŌURA CEO. “Helping individuals thrive is how we create success and positive outcomes for society as a whole. We’ve already seen significant traction with enterprise customers and are excited to continue growing these offerings as part of the next phase in ŌURA’s evolution.”
To-date, ŌURA For Business has worked with more than 200 customers in business, healthcare, academic and clinical research, and military, including Thrive Global, US Air Force, US Navy, US Army, NASA, Red Bull Racing, NASCAR, USA Surfing, Noom, OWN IT (a MaxOne brand), University of Vermont, Clemson University, and the UFC to deliver useful and accurate insights that connect the health of each individual to organizational outcomes.
Enabling Employee Wellness
ŌURA’s employee wellness offering is rooted in the philosophy that a well-rested, mindful, and active workforce will be happier, healthier, and more effective. The platform is simple, streamlined, and effective in bringing Oura Ring insights full circle for organizations, creating positive outcomes for engagement, retention, productivity, and resilience.
The platform is centered around a holistic program to establish individual baselines, drive adoption and ongoing engagement, and produce tangible outcomes. Each program is custom designed to meet an organization’s particular needs, but the pillars of the offering include:
- ŌURA’s award-winning device (Oura Ring) and App to empower employees to manage their sleep, activity, and readiness
- Administrators can see anonymous Oura Ring metrics, including Sleep, Readiness, and Activity scores and customizable insights via powerful reports and tools to understand group-level scores
- Relevant, member-focused content driving awareness and education with compelling stories and data
- Expert guidance for administrators to take action based on employee wellbeing metrics and industry best practices
- Engaging Events including Webinars, Seminars, and Fireside Chats
“The Oura Ring is an incredibly useful wellbeing partner. I’ve seen the results in everyone who wears it,” said Arianna Huffington, Founder & CEO, Thrive Global. “The data and insights I get from ŌURA make it so much easier to get the rest I need and build resilience. In a time of increasing stress and burnout, ŌURA makes better wellbeing a reality.”
Investing in Academic and Clinical Research
ŌURA is based in science, making research - both academic and clinical - paramount to its success. ŌURA works with a variety of partners to fund, participate in, and lead studies that drive forward our understanding of how sleep and stress impact diverse populations and can improve long-term health outcomes.
This powerful work has explored issues ranging from early illness detection and improving mental health, to the efficacy of different sleep patterns as related to performance and a better understanding of the impact of pregnancy on the body.
At the University of Vermont, a group of interdisciplinary scientists has launched a study to better understand the health of UVM undergraduates using the Oura Ring. The purpose of the study, comprising 600 first-year students, is to better characterize physical and mental health in university students and understand how behavioral interventions can support them.
“We’re excited to see how the Oura Ring can offer insight into the well-being of students, and how well these metrics match students’ perception of their health,” said Laura Bloomfield, Postdoctoral Fellow with the Vermont Complex Systems Center and the Gund Institute for Environment. “Starting college can have a profound impact on student health, and our hope is to find ways to support these individuals.”
The Oura Ring has also been used in illness-detection research, including in studies at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA). In February 2022, researchers at UCSF published additional findings that the Oura Ring metrics, including temperature trends and heart rate, may also help predict COVID-19 antibody levels.
ŌURA believes research is crucial to the growth of the wearable industry, and is committed to supporting independent research.
Improving Physical Performance and Recovery
ŌURA is dedicated to helping organizations support the health and resilience of their people, including those who are aiming to optimize their physical performance and recovery.
As part of an ongoing partnership with the Naval Health Research Center (NHRC) Warfighter Performance Department, ŌURA provided the Oura Ring to monitor sleep, fatigue, and health among Sailors from Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Essex (LHD 2) as part of the Crew Readiness, Endurance, and Watchstanding (CREW) study.
This work also translates to high performance athletes. In its most recent season, Clemson University’s Men’s and Women’s basketball programs used the Oura Ring along with regular Team Engagement Reporting to track players' sleep habits and recovery. The customized insights provided informed training recommendations and schedules to optimize performance.
“The Oura Ring has become an integral part of our team’s culture,” said Jena Ready, Director of Strength and Conditioning for Women's Basketball, Clemson University. “It has enhanced our individual players’ recovery and allows us to make more informed decisions based upon the data we receive from Oura Teams. Not only has our performance as a team grown tremendously, our athletes’ individual health, both physical and mental, has improved largely in part due to ŌURA.”
Rest and recovery are equally as important as activity and physical output when it comes to health, longevity, and performance. The ŌURA For Business platform ensures that administrators have insight into how their teams are recovering, allowing for preventative course correction and, ultimately, more positive outcomes.
Rooted in Safety, Accuracy, and Privacy
ŌURA’s unwavering commitment to member privacy ensures individual data is secure, and participation in organization-level programs and reports is on an opt-in basis. Program administrators have the option to ensure that all participant data is anonymized, strictly access controlled, and encrypted. You can read more about ŌURA’s data protection policies here.
Envisioning a Healthier Future
This year, ŌURA has made several key hires to its executive leadership team, including Holly Shelton as Chief Product Officer, Doug Sweeny as Chief Marketing Officer, and Lina Alcala as Chief People Officer. ŌURA recently rolled out key partnerships with Gucci, Strava, Natural Cycles, and Therabody, as well as a new product launch, Oura Gen3 Horizon. In April 2022, the company also announced it raised capital at a $2.55 billion valuation less than a month after reaching the milestone of selling the one-millionth Oura Ring.
ŌURA plans to release Improved Sleep Staging in the coming months, which was developed using one of the largest sleep datasets collected to date and validated by the National University of Singapore, to allow users to understand how sleep changes overnight with even more accuracy. Improved Sleep Staging will continue to make ŌURA one of the few consumer sleep trackers on the market to deliver data nearly as accurate as a polysomnography (PSG) lab-grade sleep test.
For more information about ŌURA For Business, visit ouraring.com/business.
For more information about the Oura Ring, visit ouraring.com.
About ŌURA:
ŌURA is the company behind the Oura Ring — the smart ring that delivers personalized health data, insights, and daily guidance. ŌURA believes health is a daily practice and, with personalized insights and guidance, you can control the course of your health to live a more balanced life. The Oura Ring tracks all stages of sleep and recovery and accounts for daily activity to provide practical steps for long-term improvement. Founded in 2013, ŌURA is headquartered in Oulu, Finland, with offices in Helsinki, San Francisco, and San Diego. ŌURA has raised capital in the past from Lifeline Ventures, Forerunner Ventures, Temasek, The Chernin Group, JAZZ Venture Partners, and MSD Capital, among others. For more information, please visit http://ouraring.com/.
The Oura Ring is not a medical device and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, monitor, or prevent medical conditions/illnesses.
