Indian wearable device company Ultrahuman has completed a new round of financing of $70 million, with investors including Qualcomm Ventures and Labcorp. The company is attempting to upgrade smart rings from health tracking devices to personal terminals that can run local software and support AI interactions.
Valuation rises to $365 million
TechCrunch According to informed sources, this company, headquartered in Bangalore, has achieved a valuation of $365 million in this round of financing, which is approximately three times its valuation of $120 million in 2023. In this round of financing, $65 million came from equity financing, and an additional $5 million was from debt financing.
The institutions participating in the investment also include Alpha Wave, Blume Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners, and Alteria Capital. For Ultrahuman, this round of financing is not only about replenishing funds but also about introducing industrial resources in the fields of chips and medical testing.
Qualcomm chips will be used in the new ring.
The company founder, also known as CEO Mohit Kumar, stated that Ultrahuman is collaborating with Qualcomm to develop a new generation of rings, planning to switch to Qualcomm chips to replace the current Nordic Sem tokens that use nductor chips for issuance. Higher local computing power will allow more programs and algorithms to run directly on the device, reducing reliance on smartphones and the cloud.
Before the launch of new hardware, some features will first be implemented through software updates on the existing Ring Air and Ring Pro. As mentioned in Kumar, the relevant updates are expected to be released by the end of September. These features include using the ring as a game controller, interacting with AI applications, and opening up new functionality for development by third-party developers.
U.S. demand exceeds supply
Ultrahuman indicates that the company's current annualized revenue operating rate is approximately $140 million, representing a year-on-year increase of about 45%. It is expected to rise to $200 million by January 2027. The company has sold a total of around 800,000 rings, which is higher than the approximately 700,000 rings sold in February of this year. Approximately 12% of users have subscribed to its paid software feature PowerPlugs.
The United States remains its largest market. Affected by a patent dispute with Oura, Ultrahuman suspended sales of Ring Air in the United States for most of the past year. This year, however, it returned to the market with a redesigned Ring Pro. Kumar stated that demand for the new product in the United States is currently about 18 to 20 times the available supply, and the U.S. market accounted for approximately 45% of the company's revenue this quarter.
The company plans to use some of the new funds to expand its market presence in India and the United Arab Emirates, and to continue investing in clinical research and product development. Kumar indicates that due to increased expenses for physical stores, brand building, and research, the company may not achieve profitability this year, and may not consider making a profit until at least 2028. IPO
Additional information:Ultrahuman is still exploring cooperation with Labcorp to study how to combine the blood flow signals collected from rings with blood test data for the identification of health risks such as cardiovascular diseases, fertility issues, and aging.
