RingConn's medical-grade ring bet: Shenzhen startup reaches global #2 behind Oura

RingConn, the brand of Shenzhen Jiuzhi Technology, designs and sells smart rings that monitor sleep, heart rate, blood oxygen, sleep apnea and blood-pressure trends, combining consumer hardware with medical-device ambitions across 190-plus countries.

That a ring on the finger, where PPG signals beat the wrist, could bring sleep-apnea and blood-pressure monitoring into daily life and out-innovate Oura.

Four undisclosed rounds by early 2026, with investors including Brizan Ventures and the Future Tech fund of professor Kao Ping-Kung, HKX and Clear Water Bay funds of professor Li Zexiang, Virtu International of professor Gan Jie, Vertex China and Westlake Innovation Capital; a Pre-A round was logged 2025-02-05.

Wang Guoxing, a distinguished professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and a chip-design researcher, began working on smart-ring sensing in 2014 after his own high blood pressure and palpitations left him wanting continuous, comfortable monitoring. His lab found finger skin is thinner with richer capillaries, giving PPG signals about 50% stronger than the wrist. In 2021 he founded Jiuzhi Technology in Shenzhen; the first ring prototype took six months and the polished RingConn Gen 1 launched on Indiegogo in November 2022 at about $215, raising more than $1.3M in 50 days.

Gen 2 launched on Kickstarter in August 2024 at about $299 and raised over $4.4M; at 2 grams and 2mm thick with 12-day battery life it was the lightest and thinnest smart ring of its time, adding what the company calls the world's first smart-ring sleep-apnea monitoring, with a reported 90.7% accuracy and AI interpretation. RingConn obtained China's Class II medical-device certification for its ring functions in 2022, became the first Chinese smart-ring brand to sell internationally, entered Walmart, Best Buy and other chains, and topped JD and Tmall smart-ring sales during 2025's Double 11. Gen 3, shown at CES in January 2026 and launched in China on 2026-05-30, added cuffless blood-pressure trend tracking every 15 minutes, built on 3,000-plus samples and 7,500 hours of ambulatory blood-pressure data collected with top-tier hospitals.

Still independent and scaling. By mid-2026 RingConn claimed the global #2 smart-ring share behind Oura, 800k+ users across 190-plus countries, monthly user growth around 200%, and a 200-person team — while Oura, the category leader, filed confidentially for a US IPO in May 2026 and Chinese celebrities began entering the ring market.

Wang's own hypertension gave him a concrete demand — comfortable, continuous blood-pressure monitoring — before a product existed, and his lab data showed the finger was the best biosignal site.

Crowdfunding de-risked hardware: 50 days of Indiegogo sales proved Gen 1's demand, and Kickstarter's $4.4M on Gen 2 funded the medical-grade feature push.

Medical-device certification and hospital partnerships created a moat that consumer-electronics entrants could not copy in a quarter, unlike a new sensor or a thinner case.

Timing helped: as Oura filed for a US IPO in May 2026, rings became a strategic market, and RingConn could present itself as the China-based challenger already at global #2.

Compete on the sensor's best spot: where the signal lives defines the product. Approvals, hospital data and disease algorithms became the moat against giants entering on hardware alone.

As of 2026-09-06 RingConn remains private and scaling. Its claimed milestones — global #2 smart-ring share, 800k+ users, 190-plus countries, monthly user growth near 200% — are company-supplied and reported by 36氪 in June 2026, and should be read as such. The competitive field widened through 2026: Oura filed confidentially for an IPO in May, Ultrahuman expanded in India and the US, and Chinese entrants backed by celebrity founders plus Dreame and other hardware groups launched rings, so the medical-grade differentiation RingConn bet on is still being tested against well-funded rivals.