Oura Seeks $2.2 Billion in IPO: Payday for Investors and the Tax Authorities
Trending Topics Jakob Steinschaden
Oura just filed to go public on Nasdaq, aiming for up to $2.2 billion. Most of the money goes to investors and tax bills, not the business.
Based on reporting by Trending Topics, Jakob Steinschaden — read the original for the full story.
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Oura has opened its Nasdaq IPO, setting up a sale of 50 million shares at $40 to $44 apiece. At the top end, that points to a valuation of about $14.1 billion and a deal size of as much as $2.2 billion. The stock will trade under the ticker OURA.
This is not really a straight cash grab for the company. Of the shares being sold, 36.5 million belong to existing holders, so almost two thirds of the offering is going to current backers rather than new corporate funding. At the midpoint, those sellers would take in about $1.53 billion before fees, while Oura itself would get roughly $567 million.
The biggest seller is Forerunner Ventures, which is cashing out its entire 9.3% stake, or about 28.7 million shares. At the midpoint, that slice is worth around $1.20 billion before underwriting fees and taxes. The firm first backed Oura in its $28 million Series B round, according to PitchBook.
The company’s own proceeds are spoken for too. Oura expects net proceeds of $532.6 million at the midpoint, but plans to spend about $526.4 million of that on taxes tied to vesting restricted stock units at the IPO. That leaves only about $6.2 million for general corporate use, while the company says its $371.8 million cash balance stays untouched and no extra debt is needed.
The business itself is growing fast. Revenue over the first nine months of the current fiscal year reached $1.214 billion, up 74% year over year, while net income rose to $60.8 million from $1.6 million. Adjusted EBITDA increased to $106.7 million from $83.5 million, though the margin slipped to 9% as marketing and research spending picked up. Hardware still makes up most sales at $974 million, but subscriptions are the profit engine: they brought in $240.5 million, grew faster than the device business, and carry an 89% gross margin.
Oura says more than 94% of activated rings convert into a paid membership, and it expects to end the fiscal year with about 5.7 million paying members, close to double last year’s figure. The most recent count was 5.0 million across 56 markets. The filing also says average revenue per ring sold fell from $332 to $311, even as the new Oura Ring 5 starts at $399, because more sales now run through retail partners such as Amazon, Best Buy, Costco, Harrods and Target.
My take — AI-written commentary, not fact-checked reporting
This is the sort of IPO that tells you who the float is really for: investors, not reinvestment. Oura has growth, margins and a sticky subscription layer, but it’s also carrying a tax bill so large it barely gets anything from its own listing. That’s a neat reminder that Silicon Valley loves talking about growth while the cap table quietly does the real talking.
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