How Intake Breathing Secured $62 Million to Transform Nasal Strips into a Mainstream Wellness Essential

The wellness industry is entering a new frontier where foundational human habits are being reimagined as premium lifestyle choices. In a major validation of this cultural shift, direct-to-consumer nasal breathing brand Intake Breathing has secured a landmark $62 million investment. The funding round was led by Camino Partners, a venture firm founded by Daniel Lubetzky, the visionary entrepreneur behind Kind Snacks. This substantial capital injection is designed to propel Intake Breathing out of its digital origins and into mass retail spaces, signaling a broader transformation in how consumers view respiratory health.

For decades, the nasal strip market has remained largely stagnant, relegated to the pharmacy cold-and-flu aisle and primarily associated with combating nighttime snoring or aiding athletic endurance. However, Intake Breathing is leading a renaissance that repositions optimized airflow as an indispensable pillar of daily wellness, athletic performance, and longevity. As functional products continue to be refashioned into lifestyle essentials, investors are betting heavily on the notion that optimizing how the human body breathes will become the next major wellness category to capture mainstream consumer spending.

A Rapid Ascent Rooted in Innovation

Founded with the mission of fundamentally improving human respiratory function, Intake Breathing has experienced exponential growth since its official market launch in 2023. According to company disclosures, the brand has achieved triple-digit year-over-year growth for the past three years, distributing more than 100 million individual breathing tabs to consumers. Up to this point, the company has scaled its operations primarily through its direct-to-consumer website and dominant placement on Amazon, cultivating a loyal following among athletes, biohackers, and everyday wellness enthusiasts.

The technical mechanism behind Intake Breathing sets it apart from legacy competitors. The brand utilizes a patented nasal dilator kit that features two independent, medical-grade adhesive nasal strips paired with a magnetic relief band. This assembly physically opens the nasal passages to their maximum capacity, improving airflow more effectively than traditional spring-back plastic strips. Furthermore, the product’s sweatproof durability and low-profile design ensure that it stays securely in place throughout an entire night of restless sleep or during high-intensity athletic training sessions.

Strategic Retail Expansion and Operational Scaling

With $62 million in fresh capital now backing its growth strategy, Intake Breathing is preparing for a sophisticated multi-channel retail rollout. Co-founder and CEO Alex Hauck emphasized that a significant portion of the funding will be allocated toward scaling the internal team and hardening supply chain operations to meet the rigorous demands of mass retail partners.

"We want to bring in experience from someone who’s been able to oversee that," Hauck explained regarding the upcoming executive and operational hires. "That’s not only from a marketing perspective, but also understanding product unification, SKU management, and having our operations dialed in and ready for the size orders that come with retail."

Camino Partners President Elle Lanning noted that the investment firm’s primary objective is to help Intake Breathing strategically navigate its brick-and-mortar partnerships. The goal is to liberate the brand from the medicinal stigma of the drugstore cold-and-flu aisle and position it alongside high-end wellness and lifestyle gear. Lanning drew a direct parallel to how Daniel Lubetzky’s Kind Snacks revolutionized the snack food industry by removing health bars from the isolated dietary supplement section of grocery stores and integrating them into mainstream food retail.

Market Validation and Changing Consumer Demographics

The timing of Camino Partners’ investment coincides with a broader wave of consolidation and high-stakes interest within the respiratory wellness sector. Earlier, Prestige Consumer Healthcare completed a massive $1 billion acquisition of Breathe Right, the historical market leader in the nasal strip category. This billion-dollar transaction underscored the immense underlying value of nasal dilation technologies, paving the way for insurgent brands like Intake Breathing to capture market share through modern branding and lifestyle positioning.

Data gathered by Camino Partners during their due diligence process revealed a striking demographic trend that cemented their decision to fund the brand. According to Lanning, approximately 74% of Intake Breathing’s customer base consists of individuals who had never previously purchased legacy nasal strip products. This indicates that the brand is not merely stealing market share from established medical incumbents, but is actively expanding the total addressable market by attracting new consumers focused on proactive health optimization.

"When we looked at it in the data, 74% of Intake consumers have not been legacy category consumers," Lanning stated. "And that solidified it for us."

From Athletic Utility to Fashion and Cultural Acceptance

One of the most remarkable aspects of Intake Breathing’s trajectory has been its successful cultural transition from a purely functional athletic accessory to a visible lifestyle statement. While the company’s earliest adopters were endurance athletes seeking superior oxygen intake during rigorous workouts, the minimalist, ergonomic design of the magnetic nasal strips has catalyzed broader public adoption.

Much like the contemporary wellness movement that destigmatized wearing acne-clearing pimple patches in public spaces, Intake Breathing has leaned into visibility. Hauck noted that roughly 90% of the brand’s digital advertising consists of organic-style video content featuring individuals wearing the device while out and about in public, naturally sparking curiosity and word-of-mouth marketing.

This cultural normalization reached a high-profile milestone earlier this year when Intake Breathing strips were featured prominently on the runway of designer Jane Wade during New York Fashion Week. By complementing the collection’s utilitarian aesthetic, the nasal strips crossed over from functional health gear into high fashion, proving that respiratory wellness can be seamlessly integrated into modern identity.

The Broader Wellness and Longevity Movement

Industry analysts view Intake Breathing’s ascent as part of a larger, systemic shift within the wellness economy. Rachel Hirsch, founder and managing partner of Wellness Growth Ventures, observed that consumers are increasingly looking to optimize every touchpoint of their daily routines, drawing parallels to how household utilities like high-end shower heads and air humidifiers have been successfully rebranded as essential beauty and wellness tools.

Hirsch compares the current surge in nasal wellness to the sweeping modernization and premiumization of the oral care category. In both cases, products once viewed through the narrow lens of basic hygiene or medical necessity are now being refashioned as crucial components of an overarching longevity-boosting routine.

"To me, it is not just vanity," Hirsch remarked. "The air you breathe is a big part of a wellness routine and impacts the rest of your health."

Scientific backing supports this consumer intuition. Nasal breathing filters, warms, and humidifies air more efficiently than mouth breathing, while also increasing nitric oxide production—a molecule that plays a vital role in cardiovascular health, immune function, and systemic oxygen circulation. By facilitating optimal nasal breathing, brands like Intake Breathing are tapping into a growing body of scientific literature that links proper respiratory mechanics to reduced stress, enhanced cognitive performance, and deeper, more restorative sleep cycles.

Looking Ahead: Becoming a Comprehensive Breathing Destination

As Intake Breathing prepares for its next phase of corporate evolution, leadership is charting a course beyond single-product dependency. While the patented nasal dilator kit remains the company’s flagship offering, the brand has already introduced complementary items, such as specialized mouth tape designed to encourage nasal breathing during sleep.

Hauck envisions the company expanding its product catalog to encompass a diverse ecosystem of respiratory health solutions, ultimately establishing Intake Breathing as the definitive destination for all things related to human breathing. By framing respiratory optimization not as a medical intervention, but as an accessible tool for everyday vitality, the brand is successfully rewriting the rules of consumer wellness.

"We want people to breathe well while doing things throughout the day," Hauck concluded. "It’s about getting more out of everything you’re doing."

With $62 million in institutional backing, an expanding retail footprint, and a culture increasingly obsessed with longevity and self-optimization, Intake Breathing is well-positioned to turn a basic biological necessity into the wellness industry’s next massive mainstream category.