Intake Breathing Raises $62M: Nasal Strips Are Going Mainstream

The article · 3 min read

What Camino Partners is betting on

Intake Breathing has closed a $62 million investment from Camino Partners, the firm founded by Kind Snacks creator Daniel Lubetzky, according to Athletech News. The capital is the first significant outside funding for the family-run business, which was started by medical device engineer Jim Castillo and is now led by CEO Alex Hauck, his son-in-law. Intake makes a magnetic nasal dilator that mechanically opens the nasal valve, the narrowest point in the nasal airway. The product uses a reusable magnetic band with adhesive tabs, separating it from single-use adhesive strips already on the market. The funding will be used to move the brand into mainstream retail.

Why this matters to gym and studio operators

The deal is the largest single raise in the Sqwod Deal Tracker’s health and longevity category to date. For comparison, the five other health and longevity deals tracked since February 2026 total $32 million in disclosed funding combined. Intake alone has raised nearly twice that figure in one round. The size of the bet reflects how seriously consumer investors are treating sleep, recovery and breathing as standalone product categories, not accessories to exercise. For operators, that shift has a practical edge: members are already arriving with opinions on nasal breathing, mouth taping and sleep optimization shaped by podcasts and social content. Intake’s move into mainstream retail will accelerate that awareness further. Recovery programming, whether that is structured cool-down, sleep coaching or breathwork sessions, is becoming a credible differentiator for studios and gyms rather than a premium add-on that only a small segment of members will pay for.

Sqwod’s take

The operator who wins here is not the one who stocks Intake strips at the front desk. It is the one who builds a coherent recovery narrative around tools like this. Lubetzky built Kind Snacks by making a health product feel accessible and everyday rather than clinical. Camino Partners is likely running the same playbook with Intake: bring the price point down, put it in every pharmacy and grocery aisle, and let ubiquity do the marketing work. By the time that happens, the product will no longer feel like a differentiator for a gym to offer. The window to position breathwork and nasal airway training as part of a studio’s programming identity is open now, before the category becomes background noise. Operators who wait for mainstream adoption to validate the trend will find themselves explaining why they are behind, not ahead.