Ultrahuman , an Indian startup best known for making smart rings, has raised $70 million in a new funding round that includes backing from Qualcomm’s venture arm, as it looks beyond sleep and health tracking to build a ring that can run software on the device and eventually power everything from AI interactions to games.
The round values Bengaluru-based Ultrahuman at $365 million, about three times its $120 million valuation in 2023, a person familiar with the matter told TechCrunch.
Qualcomm Ventures participated in the financing alongside U.S. diagnostics giant Labcorp, Alpha Wave, Blume Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners, and Alteria Capital. The round includes $65 million in primary equity and $5 million in debt, Ultrahuman founder and CEO Mohit Kumar said in an interview.
Ultrahuman is also working with Qualcomm on a new ring that will use the U.S. chipmaker’s silicon, Kumar told TechCrunch. The startup currently uses chips from Nordic Semiconductor in its rings and plans to continue using them alongside Qualcomm’s technology. The added computing power will allow more software and algorithms to run directly on the ring, reducing its reliance on a phone or the cloud, he said.
“All ring devices today are like trackers,” Kumar said. “You put on the ring, it measures your heart rate, your movement, your sleep.” Ultrahuman’s goal, he stated, is to make the ring more like a computer, where programs and algorithms can run on the device itself.
This could open the ring to use cases well beyond health and sleep tracking, something Ultrahuman rings are known for.
Developers, Kumar said, could eventually write their own programs for the device, while Ultrahuman is exploring ways for the ring to work as a pointer or mouse, a game controller, a car key, and an interface for interacting with AI.
“The future of AI is personal, ambient and always on,” said Quinn Li, global head of Qualcomm Ventures, adding that Ultrahuman is building a new generation of “personal AI devices.”