Wearables startup Oura names Tom Hale as new CEO

Oura announced Monday the appointment of Tom Hale as CEO to support the company's next stage of growth following a recent capital raise at a $2.6-billion valuation. Hale succeeds Harpreet Singh Rai, who left the Finnish wearable-technology startup in December.

Chairperson Eurie Kim lauded Hale's "decades of technology leadership across both consumer and B2B businesses," noting that the new CEO has "extensive knowledge of scaling consumer and enterprise membership experiences, and leading teams through hyper-growth." According to Kim, who is also managing partner at Forerunner Ventures that was among the investors in Oura's most recent funding round, Hale's experience with initial public offerings (IPOs) was a consideration in his appointment. "We absolutely have the aspiration to take this company far and wide, and hopefully that incorporates going public," but there is no "prescribed plan" on IPO timing, Kim added.

Hale joins Oura from Momentive, where he was president and set the enterprise growth strategy leading to that company's 2018 IPO. His career has also spanned consumer product experiences, subscription business models, B2B SaaS and software, data and hardware platforms across multiple markets. Commenting on his appointment, Hale said "I'm thrilled to join the team at Oura as we…[leverage] our strength in sleep to reach our full vision of supporting members in every aspect of life, including recovery, activity and proactive health management."

More smart ring features on the way

Oura recently launched the third iteration of its Oura smart ring, including daytime heart rate monitoring, live heart rate and restorative time monitoring, an improved temperature tracking system and new period prediction capabilities. "Additional features, including workout heart rate monitoring, blood oxygen sensing and an enhanced sleep staging algorithm, are coming this year," Oura said Monday.

Earlier this month, Oura and Inception Fertility kicked off a "first-of-its-kind" study that observes the physiological changes that occur throughout the menstrual cycle.

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