KIND founder Daniel Lubetzky put $62 million into a nasal strip company.

KIND Snacks founder Daniel Lubetzky put $62 million into a nasal strip company on Wednesday, Oct. 28. It is the biggest deal his firm has ever made. “This is the company that most reminds me of KIND,” Lubetzky told Entrepreneur.

Then. Lubetzky built KIND around snack bars. Back then, bars sat in a small part of the store. KIND helped turn them into an everyday food, Entrepreneur reports.

Now. His firm, Camino Partners, made the investment in Intake Breathing. Elle Lanning runs Camino as president. She told Modern Retail that 74% of Intake buyers had not used nasal strips before. Lubetzky and Lanning even wore the strips during their Entrepreneur interview.

The product. Intake makes a magnetic band that sits on small tabs on the nose. The company says it has sold more than 100 million pairs since 2023, according to Modern Retail. It sells online and on Amazon today. CEO Alex Hauck said the new money will help it get into stores.

The bet. The deal comes after Prestige Consumer Healthcare bought Breathe Right, a top nasal strip brand, for $1 billion, Modern Retail reports. “It’s a kind of a repositioning of the category,” Lanning said. Lubetzky added a warning for founders. “In consumer product goods, the product is king,” he told Entrepreneur.

Where it came from. Inventor Jim Castillo first built a small magnetic clip in 2014. It was meant for motocross riders whose goggles pinched their noses, Entrepreneur reports. Hauck, his son-in-law, now leads the company.

The growth. Hauck said Intake has seen triple-digit growth over the past three years, Modern Retail reported. Lanning said Camino wants to move nasal strips out of the drugstore cold-and-flu aisle, much as KIND helped move bars out of the supplement section and into the food aisle.

Why it matters. Camino plans to help Intake get into more stores, Entrepreneur reported. For Lubetzky, the bet is that a small product can grow a whole aisle, the way snack bars did. “This is the company that most reminds me of KIND,” he said.

Product and sales figures are company claims. This is news, not medical advice.