Indian startup Ultrahuman recently raised $70 million, with backing from Qualcomm Ventures among other investors, to take a leap that goes well beyond counting steps or tracking sleep: it wants its smart ring to work as a genuine pocket-sized computer. Here is what this shift is about, what role Qualcomm plays, and which new features are landing in the coming weeks.

From health tracker to personal computing contender

Based in Bengaluru, Ultrahuman started out with continuous glucose monitors and today sells rings that track heart rate, movement, and sleep quality, alongside newer blood-testing and environmental-sensing features. The recent round valued the company at $365 million, nearly triple its 2023 valuation, and comes amid strong growth: the firm reports annual revenue of close to $140 million, up 45% year over year, and has sold roughly 800,000 rings worldwide. According to CEO Mohit Kumar, most devices in this category remain simple trackers, and the company’s goal is for the ring to genuinely behave like a computer.

A Qualcomm chip for more autonomy

The core of the announcement is that Ultrahuman is developing a new ring built around a Qualcomm chip, which will sit alongside the Nordic Semiconductor chip it already uses. That extra processing power would let software and algorithms run directly on the device, cutting the dependence on a phone or cloud servers for tasks that currently require a constant connection. In parallel, the company also secured backing from Labcorp, with whom it will explore whether blood-flow signals captured by the ring, combined with traditional blood tests, can help flag risks tied to cardiovascular health, fertility, and aging.

Game controller, AI assistant, and more to come

Before the end of September, the current Ring Air and Ring Pro models will get a software update enabling them to work, for example, as a game controller or as a bridge for interacting with AI applications, something Kumar sums up plainly: a traditional game controller never measures heart rate or temperature, but this one does. The company also plans to open the door to third-party developers to build their own features. The space is far from empty: Oura, its main rival in this market, is preparing a stock market debut valued at more than $16 billion, making clear that the race to turn a ring into far more than a tracker has only just begun.

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Source: TechCrunch.