The news
The Oura IPO is on hold. The smart-ring maker postponed its planned Nasdaq listing on September 29, the day before its shares were expected to start trading, citing uncertainty in the IPO market despite what it called strong demand.
Oura had launched the offering on September 21, marketing 50 million shares at $40 to $44 each under the ticker OURA on the Nasdaq Global Select Market. At the top of the range the deal would have raised up to $2.2 billion. Only 13.5 million of those shares were new stock from the company; selling stockholders were offering the other 36.5 million. Reuters put the targeted fully diluted valuation at $15.62 billion at the top of the range, and TechCrunch reported that early investor Forerunner Ventures was set to sell its entire 9.3% stake.
In a statement released through Business Wire, chief executive Tom Hale called the IPO just one step in the company's journey and said Oura has "the luxury of choosing our moment." The company said it is profitable, has 5.7 million paid members and expects revenue to grow 90% year over year in 2026. Its registration statement has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission but has not been declared effective, and Oura did not give a new date.
TechCrunch reported that Oura had $907.9 million in revenue in 2025 and about $372 million in cash at the end of June, and that paying members rose from 5 million at the end of June. Memberships carry an 89% gross margin and made up about 20% of sales, according to TechCrunch. Oura was valued at about $11 billion in October 2025, when it raised $900 million in a round led by Fidelity, the outlet reported.
Demand was real but not overwhelming, one analyst said. Lukas Muehlbauer, a research associate at IPO research firm IPOX, told Reuters that reports showed the offering was around four times oversubscribed, which he described as a decent level of demand for a well-known consumer brand, but not overwhelming. He added that higher rates are making investors more selective, particularly on growth valuations.
The numbers
- Planned offering size (top of range)
- Up to $2.2 billion
- Shares offered
- 50 million (13.5 million new, 36.5 million from existing holders)
- Price range
- $40 to $44
- Targeted valuation at top of range (Reuters)
- $15.62 billion
- Private valuation, October 2025 (TechCrunch)
- About $11 billion
- Paid members
- 5.7 million
- Expected 2026 revenue growth (company)
- 90%
Why CEOs should care
For CEOs and CFOs of late-stage companies planning fourth-quarter listings, Oura is a warning. It had a well-known brand, profits, fast growth and a reportedly oversubscribed book, and still stepped back. Reuters reported that a spike in bond yields, fears of more Federal Reserve rate hikes and geopolitical turmoil have soured sentiment, and that nuclear services company Holtec suspended its planned IPO earlier in September while Bamboo Insurance delayed its listing. Build a plan that does not depend on a fixed IPO date: keep private funding, debt or a structured secondary sale ready as fallbacks.
For boards and employees, look at who was selling. Existing holders were offering 36.5 million of the 50 million shares, so most of the money at stake was a payday for existing shareholders, such as Forerunner Ventures, rather than new capital for the company. Boards at companies in a similar spot should tell employees plainly what the delay means for their equity, and consider whether a company-run tender offer can bridge the gap.
For investors in consumer hardware, Oura's numbers, as reported by TechCrunch, show that a subscription attached to a device can be highly profitable: memberships carry an 89% gross margin, though they made up only about 20% of sales. The postponement says more about the market than about that model, but it also means there is still no public price for it.
The bigger picture
The 2026 IPO market has been dominated by a few giant deals. Crunchbase News reported that U.S. venture-backed tech companies raised nearly $90 billion in public offerings in 2026, with SpaceX accounting for 83% and Cerebras Systems another 6%, while just 21 other venture-backed tech companies raised less than $10 billion combined. Crunchbase News also noted that Reuters reported Anthropic could list after the U.S. midterm elections in November, and that OpenAI, which filed confidentially in June, is targeting early 2027. Muehlbauer said he would not call the IPO window closed while Anthropic pushes ahead. For everyone below that tier, the window looks much narrower.
What’s next
Oura has not set a new timetable. Watch whether it returns later in the fall or waits for 2027, whether other late-stage companies pull or delay filings in the coming weeks, and whether a large AI listing such as Anthropic's lifts demand for smaller deals or absorbs it.
What “Fact-checked” means
Fact-checking means testing a story’s facts against the evidence before it is published. This story went through at least two separate checks before this version was published.
- What we checked
- Its names, figures, dates, job titles, quotes and who said what were checked against the story’s sources, including its main source where it could be opened. The headline was checked for accuracy and overstatement.
- How
- A first check reviewed the whole story. If it passed, a second, skeptical check went back to the sources to look for mistakes in the most important facts. If a check flagged the story, it was edited to fix the problems found, and a separate re-check then reviewed the whole story again.
- Who
- The checks are made by our newsroom, as steps kept separate from the writing, under rules set by our editor, Hussein Mukhtar. A story the checks still flag is held for the editor, who decides whether it is fixed, published or dropped.
- If something is wrong
- “Fact-checked” does not mean error-free. If a material error is found after publication, we correct the story and add a note saying what changed. Report an error
Companies in this story
