Big Moves: Intake Breathing lands $62 million, and three more

Some of the best moves lately came from brands that took something people already buy and made it again. A nose strip, a box of kids cereal, a bag of tortilla chips and a hair mask all got a new version, and each company behind them did something worth copying.

Intake: $62 million from Camino Partners

Camino Partners, the investment firm started by KIND founder Daniel Lubetzky, put $62 million into Intake Breathing, the Santa Barbara, Calif. brand behind a magnetic nasal dilator: a reusable magnetic band that pairs with single-use adhesive tabs. It is the company's first institutional funding. Inventor Jim Castillo founded Intake in 2019 with his daughter Natalie and son-in-law Alex Hauck, now CEO, and it started with a $100,000 Kickstarter.^1,2,3

Beauty Independent reports Intake is approaching $100 million in revenue this year and has sold more than 100 million pairs of tabs since 2023, almost all through Amazon and its own site. The money goes to key hires and a move into stores, and no first retail partner has been named yet. Camino president Elle Lanning said 74 percent of Intake's users had never bought a traditional nasal strip.^1,2

Why it matters: Intake found its people in sport and sleep, not the cold-and-sinus aisle, so most of its buyers were new to the category. When your customers never shopped the old version, you are building a category, and that is the story a partner like Camino pays for.

See how they stack up on Brand Tested

Little Spoon: Dolphin Divers, its first cereal

Little Spoon, the brand that started by delivering fresh baby food to parents' doors, launched Dolphin Divers, its first kids' cereal, exclusively at Target stores nationwide. It comes in three flavors, Cinnamon Wave, Fruity Splash and Deep Sea Cocoa, in dolphin-shaped pieces made with organic whole grain oats and pea protein, sweetened with date powder and maple syrup, with no artificial flavors or colors. The box leans into a retro '90s ocean look, a nod to every millennial parent who once wanted to be a marine biologist.^4,5

The cereal joins a breakfast lineup that already includes the Target-exclusive Homestyle Mini Pancakes. Co-founder and chief product officer Angela Vranich: "Cereal is one of the most iconic foods of childhood, and one of the hardest to get right." Working with Target, she said, gave the team "a rare glimpse into what everyday families were actually reaching for."⁴

Why it matters: Little Spoon earned parents' trust at the first spoonful and is following the same families into breakfast, with what it learned from Target about what families reach for. If you already own the relationship with a customer, every new aisle is a shorter walk.

Vaca Chips: $5.6 million, its second raise this year

Vaca Chips, the tortilla chip fried in beef tallow, raised $5.6 million led by Barrel Ventures, with Vanterra Ventures, Amberstone, Habitat Partners, RiverPark Ventures, SuperAngel.Fund and Air Ventures joining as new investors and earlier backer BAM Ventures coming back in. It follows the $1.5 million Vaca raised over the summer.^6,7

Brian Gibb and Joshua Haddox launched Vaca in April 2025. CPG Wire reports it reached a $14 million run rate within 16 months, and the chips are on shelves in select Whole Foods stores in Southern California, Southern Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii.^7,8

Why it matters: Vaca took one of the most crowded snacks in the store and changed one thing, the fat it fries in, then put that one thing in big type on the front of the bag. A single difference a shopper can see in a second is easier to sell than a list of five.

mes°: Jennifer Lawrence's hair care brand

Jennifer Lawrence launched mes°, a hair care brand she created with Jasmina Aganovic, founder of the biotech beauty company Arcaea. It is a 50-50 venture, with Lawrence as founder and Aganovic as CEO. The first three products are the Multitask Repair Mask at $52, the Off-Duty Restyling Serum at $44 and the Good Roots Volume Mist at $34, sold on the brand's own site to start.^9,10

The idea is fewer steps: a clear mask you can put on dry hair and even wear out as a slicked-back look, and products made to stretch the time between wash days. On the name, Lawrence told WWD: "I have been referred to as a mess my whole life, so the name resonates with me."⁹

Why it matters: mes° launched with three products and one promise, a shorter routine, in a category that keeps adding steps. A small first line that takes work out of the customer's day is easier to explain, and a name with a story behind it does a lot of that explaining for you.

Know a brand making a big move?

Big Moves covers raises, acquisitions, retail launches, product launches and notable hires across consumer brands: food and beverage, apparel, accessories, home goods, jewelry, cosmetics, skincare and wellness. Every item is checked against a primary or reputable source with a date. No brand pays to appear. Reply to the newsletter to suggest one.

The Brand Tested Score measures how distinct a brand is (Brand DNA, 40%) and how well its own online store sells (Site Experience, 60%). Scores are Brand Tested’s opinion, built from public storefront pages and the apps we detected on the scan date and our published v2.0 methodology. They aren’t statements of fact about any company. See something wrong? Request a correction.