“Can a community-driven French natural cosmetics brand scale from DTC deodorants into a full dermo-cosmetics line distributed across pharmacies and direct channels?”
Founded in 2018 via crowdfunding, Respire began as a French DTC natural deodorant brand emphasising clean formulations and community-building. The brand expanded into pharmacies (2,000+ partners) while maintaining its DTC e-commerce channel on Shopify. By 2024-2025 it broadened its product range into face serums, suncare, and body care, evolving into a full dermcosmetics brand. Embedded finance is limited to DTC checkout tooling; there is no BaaS, lending, or payroll fintech layer evident.
Respire processes payments through Mollie, Shop Pay (self-operated via Shopify) and PayPal.
Respire integrates with Odoo.
The Embedded Finance Index 2026 maps 2 layers in Respire's stack: Payments / PSP (Mollie, Shop Pay (self-operated via Shopify) and PayPal); Accounting (Odoo).
Respire was founded by Justine Hutteau and is founded in 2018, headquartered in Paris, France.
Get a read on where your own stack stands against Respire and the rest of its category — what they built versus bought, which providers they use, and where the gaps in your own strategy and competitive set actually are.