Oura, the new wearable fitness and lifestyle tracker on the market, was founded in Oulu, Finland, by Petteri Lahtela, Kari Kivela, and Markku Koskela alongside a small team of researchers, developers, and team members in 2013 (Hughes, 2025).
Lahtela is the co-founder of the original Oura health company.
Lahtela is a self proclaimed serial entrepreneur and investor in matters of human health and lifestyle innovations. With experience noting strong backgrounds in tech, business and health/lifestyle to promote human health in several companies as an investor and fellow innovator (Nordic Business Forum, 2019).
Oura, originally Jouzen before its official release, is a health and lifestyle company that uses technology and data tracking and analysis to help people improve their lifestyle by providing insights into sleep patterns and fitness through a wearable ring device. This device collects data from the wearer, such as resting heart rate, heart rate variability, respiratory rate, sleep stages, and daily activity (like most other fitness trackers on the market). It then showcases the data in an app for users to view and to provide explanations of its meaning (Oura, 2021). This data is accessed through a pay-to-enter membership site. It also offers the ability to import collected data to third-party webpages and provides opportunities for developers to work with it. The estimated market for wearable tech was at 61.3 billion in 2022 and expected to rise to 186.1 billion in 2026 (Wong, 2023). This growth was attributed to increased customer health consciousness and fitness.
When assessing, I think about how I can draw on what I know about my field of secondary science education and use additional tools and products more effectively to help my students better understand and learn from them. There are many settings where wearable tech could be useful for demonstrating biology topics and potentially some physics applications, depending on the type of wearable device. Lahtela’s profile and online presence show his confidence in business, and the way he applies his skills and knowledge to different projects and products is inspiring. This has helped me see that I can apply much more of my degree and experience to a wider range of projects and be a valuable asset to many existing ones.
References
Hughes, L. (2025, February 10). The Origins and Evolution of Oura Ring. The Pulse Blog. https://ouraring.com/blog/history-of-oura/?srsltid=AfmBOooijgiY0W77P6UjriLMH8tqog_EiFlsFSKDAxA-3UVDnoiMb-tb
Lahtela , P. (n.d.). Petteri Lahtela Profile. LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/in/plahtela/?originalSubdomain=fi
Nordic Business Forum. (2019, May 4). Petteri Lahtela: What I learned through founding Oura Health. Nordic Business Forum. https://www.nbforum.com/nbreport/petteri-lahtela-what-i-learned-through-founding-oura-health/
Oura. (2021). About us. Ouraring.com. https://ouraring.com/about-us
Wong, J. (2023, June 15). Oura – Contrary Research Company Profile & Resources | Contrary Research. Research.contrary.com. https://research.contrary.com/company/oura
