Oura Buys AI Doctor-Chat Startup Counsel Health for $625 Million
The smart ring maker is paying nearly 10 times what Counsel Health raised to fuse biometric tracking with an AI chatbot that can hand you off to a real doctor.
What happened: Oura, maker of the popular smart ring, said Tuesday it will pay $625 million in cash for Counsel Health, a Boston startup that pairs an AI chatbot with licensed doctors for virtual visits. The companies had already been working together since June, when Counsel's chat tool was built into the Oura app. Now Oura is buying the company outright, weeks after shelving its own IPO over market uncertainty. Counsel's roughly 70 employees, including physician-CEO Muthu Alagappan, join Oura; he becomes its chief clinical AI officer. One source says the deal closes by the end of this year, another says 2027 — a discrepancy in the reporting we can't resolve.
Why it matters: Oura already tracks sleep, heart rate, stress and other signals for more than 5.7 million paying members. Linking that data directly to a chatbot that can escalate to a real physician turns a fitness gadget into something closer to a care coordinator. It fits a bigger pattern: health companies stitching separate tools — tracking, triage, prescriptions, chronic care — into one subscription, betting people want action, not just data. Oura is also testing whether insurers, not just individual buyers, will pay for that bundle.
How it works, plainly: Inside the Oura app, a ring-wearer can message Counsel's AI about a symptom or an odd reading, share biometric history with it, and get routed to a licensed physician by video for prescriptions, lab review or referrals. After a 30-day free trial tied to the acquisition, unlimited access costs $159 a year — on top of the ring itself ($349 to $499) and its existing $5.99-a-month or $69.99-a-year membership fee. Oura says physicians stay 'in the loop' on clinical decisions rather than letting the AI act alone.
What's still unproven: Oura paid nearly 10 times what Counsel had reportedly raised, a price its backers call aggressive but justified by demand for physician-supervised AI. Oura-cited numbers look good — over 90% of surveyed members said ring data helped their care, and doctor visits scored 4.6 out of 5 — but that's the company's own data, not independent research. Users have already pushed back on stacking subscription fees, and Oura still needs insurers and employers, not just enthusiasts, to adopt the bundle. So far it points to just one Medicare Advantage plan covering the ring.