For the Wellness Briefing, Glossy spoke with Eric Kau, CEO and co-founder of wellness startup Climatic, the maker of L Max, an everyday inhaler made to improve lung health. Kau, a former Target and Amazon exec turned COO of Seed probiotics, sees a dynamic runway for the emerging lung health wellness category.
Additionally, skin-health tech startup SkinBit takes on $6 million in funding, Club Pilates hits an international milestone on its path to lead studio pilates, and AG1 enters the gummy vitamin category.
Is lung health the future of wellness?
There are a lot of reasons for consumers to worry about lung health, from the unseen effects of vaping to everyday pollution and pollen. But wildfires are shaping up to be one of the biggest concerns in our modern era.
The Western part of the U.S. is experiencing its worst wildfire season in decades, with fires raging through Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, California, Colorado and across Canada right now. On Tuesday morning, there were 142 new wildfires reported nationwide, including 12 large-scale fires, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. On Tuesday, the government agency was monitoring 104 uncontained large fires in the U.S.
This comes on the heels of U.S. cities like New York being engulfed in toxic smoke from Canadian wildfire blazes earlier this summer. Meanwhile, Europe has spent the summer battling wildfires and excessive heat. Of course, this all comes just 18 months after wildfires ravaged the Pacific Palisades and Altadena neighborhoods of Los Angeles.
Now, there’s a category-creating wellness company looking to provide relief for consumers concerned about particulate matter in our air, including that from wildfire smoke.
“In some ways, [Climatic] was just being founded [back in 2024] when wildfires were coming through New York,” Eric Kau, CEO and co-founder of lung health startup Climatic, told Glossy. “People were locking themselves indoors and buying air filters. We’re providing an alternative that can help you fight off the environmental effects [of smoke].”
The company emerged from stealth in February with $10 million in seed investment led by capital firm Lerer Hippeau, investors in brands like Glossier and Casper. Climatic debuted in April with one product: the L Max, an inhaler designed to clean daily buildup from the lungs caused by pollution, pollen and irritants like smoke, all while supporting improved airflow. The L Max Starter Kit sells DTC for $95 and includes 28 daily blister pack refills that are inserted into the inhaler before each use.
“I would liken [the experience] to a deep breath of cold autumn air,” Kau said. “You get this mint eucalyptus feeling as you inhale it, and then there’s a feeling of openness [in the lungs].”
Kau’s CV includes retail heavyweights like Target, Best Buy, Amazon and Chewy, working across business partnerships, development and merchandising operations before joining supplement disruptor Seed in 2021. Kau served as COO at Seed until 2024, the same year the probiotic disruptor reached $200 million in annual revenue, according to Reuters.
From a business perspective, launching Climatic was straightforward for Kau. “[Lung health] has a large and growing consumer base with an unmet need,” he told Glossy. “[There are] some lung health issues among some people in my family, [so I have always been] acutely aware about the lack of non-aggressive solutions that exist.”
Climatic started with a focus on acquiring biohackers, competitive athletes and those investing in their longevity, primarily among affluent, coastal consumers. Top marketing channels for Climatic thus far include active communities, like run clubs and Strava groups. However, he hopes the product can be a tool for anyone looking to maximize their lung health.
“In a post-Covid world, everybody’s a little bit more aware of respiratory health,” Kau said. “Breathwork in general has become a bigger part of wellness for teens, whether it has to do with mental health or sleep or high blood pressure. So that’s creating a kind of positive tailwind.” There is also VO2 Max, the metric used to measure lung capacity among biohackers, which is driving awareness, plus an increase in toxic particulate matter caused by environmental factors. “[These issues are] creating substantially more awareness in the category,” he said. “And they’re generally bringing the consumer toward this idea that I should be investing more in my lungs proactively.”
In a lot of ways, Seed’s marketing blueprint is a valuable wireframe for Climatic. “Seed, for different reasons, was educating people about the microbiome, and [now], we very much are educating people about the benefits of lung health,” Kau said. “There’s been a lot of carryover in that regard.”
For Climatic, leading with science means translating and promoting a clinical study released in April in which study participants experienced a 55% increase in mucus clearance after one dose, and 80% of participants saw improvements in their HRV after two weeks of use.
“[At Seed] we really prided ourselves, just like we do at Climatic, on this idea that there’s a scientific backing to what we’re saying the product is and can do,” he told Glossy. “I think consumers want that, but it also allows us to be more specific in helping people understand the value of the product [by being able to make scientifically-backed efficacy claims].”
According to Google Trends, searches for “lung health” reached a score of 100 — the metric that denotes the most searched time for the phrase — in February of this year, while “wildfire smoke” reached 100 in July of this year. Meanwhile, searches for “wildfire smoke” plus “particulate matter” didn’t receive enough searches to register in Google Trends until the week of June 28, when it shot up. It reached a 100 search value on July 12, with most searches coming from California and Oregon.
“We see lung health becoming another key longevity pillar, kind of sitting alongside sleep, general nutrition, hydration and gut health,” Kau said. “You take 20,000 breaths a day, and yet most people, historically, were not doing anything proactively to better that part of human health.”
Executive moves:
- Wells Fargo has hired Anthony Giuliano as its new managing director and head of beauty and wellness within its consumer and retail investment arm, according to several industry reports. Giuliano joins from Perella Weinberg, where he worked on the acquisition of Olaplex by Henkel, Not Your Mother’s Haircare by Henkel and The Estée Lauder Companies’ acquisition of The Ordinary.
- Rahquel Purcell has taken on the role of chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer at L’Oréal Group. Purcell has been with the conglomerate for more than a decade, most recently as chief transformation officer, North America and chief operations officer, North America.
News to know:
- Another day, another body scanner. The latest news from the category comes from SkinBit, a company building a full-body scanner for skin-cancer screening. Announced this week, SkinBit has taken on $6 million in pre-seed funding from Boost VC, Cleo Capital, Manna Ventures and Profluent Capital, plus several dermatologists. Founder and CEO Jonathan Benassaya’s CV includes senior director of product management at Meta and chief product officer at Life360, a family connection and safety app.
- As pilates continues to trend, Xponential Fitness-owned Club Pilates, the largest pilates chain in the U.S., is looking to lead the category globally. Announced last week, the company has surpassed 1,500 locations as it pushes deeper into international expansion. The announcement comes on the heels of entering Thailand and Mexico through franchising deals with local operators.
- AG1, the nutritional drink mix launched in 2010, has expanded into vitamin gummies. This marks the company’s third product release in 16 years. In 2025, the company added AGZ, a formula meant to encourage sleep with a magnesium-led mix of nutrients. Now, the company has entered the gummy space with the launch of a fiber daily multivitamin. The launch comes on the heels of Unilever’s $1.2 billion acquisition of Grüns daily gummies.
Stat of the week:
Physicians are becoming increasingly more interested in access to the data collected by patients’ wellness-focused wearables like health tracker rings, watches and more novel hardware systems. A new study conducted by the American Medical Association found that 97% of the 2,222 physicians surveyed reported reviewing wearable data from patients in some capacity. Still, only 6% of survey respondents reported being able to integrate wearable data into their workflows, which points to one primary takeaway: Structural barriers, not motivation, limit integration of wearable data into health, according to the report.
In the headlines:
Kroger’s AI shopping assistant has ads at launch [Digiday]. The wellness M&A hot streak shows no signs of slowing down [Modern Retail]. Why Nike & Hyperice are going all-in on high-tech recovery footwear [ATN]. What happens when AI search tools recommend “dupes”? [TFL] Tai chi walking is good for your body and mind [Vogue] New kind of flu shot is on the way as the FDA approves Moderna’s mRNA-based vaccine [PBS]
Listen in:
Have you ever wondered how awards show beauty and wellness partnerships come together to create big, splashy red carpet moments that seem to reverberate across social media for weeks or months? In today’s episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, host Lexy Lebsack interviews beauty industry agents Marissa Alfe and Lauren FitzGerald, co-founders of PRTNRS Management.
Need a Glossy recap?
Jupiter enters Ulta Beauty as the retailer targets dandruff, solution-based hair care. Glossy Pop Newsletter: PepsiCo-owned Poppi hires 250 paid student ambassadors to lead on-campus marketing, identify sales channels. Marketplaces love to tout their GMV, but the stat doesn’t tell the whole story. Ulta Beauty bets on the growing scalp-care market with prestige hair-care brand Nutrire. Fashion Briefing: As P.E. firms pull away from fashion, licensed brand management companies step up acquisitions. Luxury Briefing: Could luxury’s next ‘it’ product be software? Brunello Cucinelli’s is already a 7-figure business. Rhode sells $27 million DTC in one day, plots 19-country expansion.
