Intake Breathing nabs $62M investment, joining the emerging nasal wellness trend 

The growing interest in products like Intake Breathing also shows that consumer wellness is expanding far beyond supplements or skin care, and bleeding into daily habits like breathing. Brands like Hostage Tape and ZzzTape have also popped up in the last few years to cater to the mouth-taping craze. As consumer brands continue to reposition functional products as lifestyle essentials, optimizing airflow and restful sleep are becoming the forefront of the wellness industry. 

Intake Breathing’s co-founder and CEO, Alex Hauck, said the company has experienced triple-digit growth over the past three years, with more than 100 million pairs of breathing tabs sold since its launch in 2023. Currently, the brand’s products are sold through its DTC site and on Amazon. The Camino Partners backing will help the company take its operations to the next level.

Hauck said much of the fresh capital will go toward growing the internal team and bolstering the brand’s retail expansion. “We want to bring in experience from someone who’s been able to oversee that,” he said. “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.” 

Intake Breathing is trying to spearhead the emerging breathing-as-wellness trend, since breathing well can have a great impact on the rest of a person’s routine, including getting restful, snore-free sleep and a great workout session. 

Hauck said that Intake’s consumers are reporting better daily activity and sleep patterns due to optimized breathing. According to the company, its patented nasal dilator kit features two independent nasal strips alongside a magnetic relief band that helps open the nasal passages to their widest capacity. Hauck added that one of the draws to the brand is its sweatproof nasal strip’s ability to stay on, even throughout a full night’s sleep. 

“They’re just able to get more out of life because they are getting a better rest,” Hauck said. “Given its effectiveness, people are able to adopt it into their life in a meaningful way.”

Hauck said the minimalist design has also helped the company widen its marketing scope outside of its original audience of athletes. “About 90% of our ads are just us putting the product on people who are out and about,” he said. “That is stirring a lot of curiosity.” 

Moreover, Hauck said Intake’s ergonomic, athletic look has also helped adoption, similar to the way young people embraced wearing pimple patches in public. Intake’s nose strips were featured on the runway of designer Jane Wade at New York Fashion Week earlier this year to complement the collection’s utilitarian looks, Hauck said.

Elle Lanning, president of Camino Partners, told Modern Retail that Camino wants to help the brand be strategic about retail partnerships and bring the category outside the drugstore cold-and-flu aisle. The blended funding round follows the acquisition of Breathe Right, a leader in the nasal strip space, by Prestige Consumer Healthcare for $1 billion. 

Lanning likened the strategy to Kind helping bring the health bar out of the dietary supplement section and positioning it as food. 

“When we looked at it in the data, 74% of Intake consumers have not been legacy category consumers,” Lanning said. “And that solidified it [the investment] for us.” 

Despite the brand being grounded in athletic performance, Lanning said the lifestyle and wellness use makes it attractive to retailers looking to round out their assortment. “It’s a kind of a repositioning of the category,” Lanning said.

Rachel Hirsch, founder and managing partner of Wellness Growth Ventures, said it’s no surprise that the desire to optimize breathing is trending within the wellness category. 

Hirsch likened the interest in brands like Intake Breathing to the way products like shower heads and air humidifiers have been refashioned as beauty products. She sees similarities between nasal wellness and the reinvention of the oral care category, with both being positioned as part of an overall longevity-boosting routine.

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

Hauck said as Intake Breathing grows its assortment, the company wants to become a destination for all things breathing. The brand currently also sells mouth tape, although Hauck said it’s positioned as a complementary product to Intake Breathing’s nose strips.

“We want people to breathe well while doing things throughout the day,” he said. “It’s about getting more out of everything you’re doing.”