U.S. retail brokerage Robinhood will serve as one of the underwriters for the upcoming IPO of smart ring manufacturer Oura. This marks Robinhood's first participation in an IPO as an official underwriter since it was approved for IPO underwriting qualifications earlier this year.

On June 10, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev publicly announced that its brokerage, Robinhood Securities, had been approved to underwrite IPOs, moving beyond its previous role of merely distributing new shares to retail investors. He stated, "We intend to make disruptive changes in this area," and noted that industry discussions have shifted from "whether to allocate shares to retail investors" to "how much can be allocated to retail investors."

Oura officially submitted its IPO prospectus on September 3, planning to list on NASDAQ under the ticker "OURA." It had previously submitted a confidential application on May 21. The company aims to raise up to $3 billion (including cashing out for existing shareholders) and targets a valuation exceeding $16 billion, a significant increase from its valuation of about $11 billion during its last funding round in October 2025.

Financial data shows that Oura generated approximately $1.4 billion in revenue over the past 12 months as of June 30, with $1.21 billion in revenue over the past nine months, a 74% year-over-year increase. Ring hardware sales contributed $974 million, while subscription services contributed $240 million. During the same period, the company reported a net profit of $60.77 million, up from just $1.57 million in the same period last year, with an adjusted EBITDA of $107 million and a gross margin of 55%.

On the user side, Oura currently has 5 million paying members, with a conversion rate of over 94% from ring purchasers to paying members, and a 12-month retention rate of 85%. Users wear the ring for an average of 23 hours per day. Founded in 2013 and headquartered in Oulu, Finland, Oura's products are available in 56 markets, and it is projected to hold about 76.4% market share in the smart ring category by 2025, with major competitors including Ultrahuman, RingConn, Samsung Galaxy Ring, and Whoop. The lead underwriting syndicate for this IPO also includes traditional investment banks such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, Allen & Company, and Jefferies.

From a funding and competitive landscape perspective, Robinhood's acquisition of the underwriting position is significant not for the underwriting fees themselves (as a new underwriter, its share of fees is typically much lower than that of lead underwriters like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley), but for the voice it gains in the allocation of new shares in IPOs. Previously, Robinhood could only passively obtain a portion of allocations through its "IPO Access" channel to resell to retail users. Now, as an official underwriter, it can more actively participate in the pricing process and strive for a larger share of allocations directly for its retail customers, thereby enhancing the attractiveness of its brokerage business and trading commission revenue. Traditional investment banks are also willing to allocate some underwriting positions to Robinhood to tap into its large retail traffic and sell new shares quickly and smoothly.

Additional information: Currently, Robinhood has a market capitalization of approximately $109.8 billion, a 22.5% increase from a year ago. CEO Tenev has previously stated that he hopes the company can reach a valuation of $1 trillion in the future, calling this goal "very, very difficult" but "achievable." In addition to underwriting IPOs, Robinhood has recently been promoting tokenized stock trading and is attempting to transform from a traditional retail trading platform into a comprehensive financial platform covering trading, underwriting, and tokenized assets.

Source: Public information