Oura investment shaped a hardware-and-subscription thesis

An investor said they invested personally in Oura around the time of Adjacent’s first close, before having a fund, through a special-purpose vehicle with friends. Oura was then a hardware device without a subscription, but the investment thesis anticipated a move toward recurring subscriptions.

Experience with Calm and the growth of its sleep stories helped inform the view that sleep is foundational to health and psychological well-being. The Oura investment became an origin point for a broader hardware-and-subscription thesis that later included Board, Backbone and Tractive.

Tractive built a pet-tracking device with location and activity features. It was acquired by Bending Spoons and was described as probably the biggest exit in Austria; its average subscription reportedly lasted for years.