Oura to acquire Counsel Health for $625 million, placing a big bet on AI care

Résumé détaillé

Counsel Health is the maker of a chatbot that users can talk with about health concerns before being transferred to a clinician for treatment and diagnosis over telehealth.

Oura, the smart ring maker that just over a month ago delayed plans to go public over market uncertainty, announced on Tuesday that it will spend $625 million to acquire Counsel Health, a clinical artificial intelligence startup.

Counsel Health is the maker of a chatbot that users can talk with about health concerns before being transferred to a clinician for treatment and diagnosis over telehealth. The company had previously disclosed $36 million in funding.

The large transaction reflects a growing desire to connect consumer wearable devices to clinical care as well as the conviction that AI chatbots will be an important part of health care.

“I think bringing AI into Oura to help move us from insights and knowledge and data to action, where Counsel doctors can prescribe, diagnose, and refer,” said Oura CEO Tom Hale. “I think it’s very obvious that it’s a transformative move for both companies.”

Counsel Health has offices in Boston and New York City, and plans to continue having a presence in both cities, according to a Counsel spokesperson.

The acquisition builds on a relationship between Oura and Counsel that has been established over the course of last year. Oura in June made Counsel’s services available within the app, where users can ask Counsel’s AI chatbot questions about their biometrics data captured by Oura’s smart rings. The relationship between Hale and Counsel CEO Muthu Alagappan has become quite close as the companies consider their futures.

“In September, Muthu and I were in the US Open together,” said Hale. “The night that we made the IPO decision, Muthu and I, I think, talked four times.”

Part of the thesis is that a tighter provider integration can help make the voluminous data that wearables capture more useful in delivering better clinical care.

“We’ve seen so many cases come through of patients with urgent care issues that are either incorrectly treated by the traditional health care system, or inadequately treated,” said Alagappan.

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