Who Really Owns Your Saunas & Cold Plunge Brands

Clearlight is the flagship brand of Sauna Works, founded by Dr. Raleigh Duncan and built over roughly three decades into a premium, low-EMF infrared sauna maker with a devoted following. It remains privately owned by Duncan and partner Andy Kaps. A common point of confusion is the Jacuzzi connection: in 2021 the company signed a licensing partnership to build 'Jacuzzi Infrared Saunas,' but that is a brand license, not a buyout — Sauna Works still manufactures the products and the founders still own the business. It's one of the clearer founder-owned stories in the category.

⚠ The maker of Clearlight infrared saunas, privately held and still owned by founder Dr. Raleigh Duncan (a chiropractor) and longtime partner Andy Kaps. In 2021 the company entered a licensing partnership with Jacuzzi Inc. to produce 'Jacuzzi Infrared Saunas' — a brand-licensing deal, not an acquisition: Sauna Works remains the manufacturer and the founders remain the owners.

HUUM was founded in Tallinn, Estonia in 2014 by Siim Nellis — the third generation of his family to build sauna heaters, following his grandfather and father. Working with the Estonian Academy of Arts, Nellis created the sculptural DROP heater that put the brand on the map, and HUUM has grown into one of Estonia's standout export success stories. It remains privately held and founder-controlled — a genuine independent whose design-first reputation is directly tied to its family ownership and craft lineage.

⚠ An Estonian design-led sauna-heater maker founded in 2014 by Siim Nellis, a third-generation member of a sauna-stove-building family. Known for the award-winning DROP heater and app-connected controllers, HUUM has become one of Estonia's notable export brands and remains privately held and founder-run.

Sunlighten began as Sunlight Saunas in 1999 and became one of the best-known infrared-sauna brands in the US. Connie and Aaron Zack left careers at Procter & Gamble to build it, and the Zack family still owns and runs the company — Aaron as CEO. In a category defined by roll-ups and conglomerate ownership, Sunlighten stands out as a founder-controlled independent that has resisted selling. It has even flipped the script, acquiring the cold-plunge brand Ice Barrel's assets in 2025 to run as its own subsidiary — a founder-owned company consolidating on its own terms rather than being consolidated.

⚠ A leading infrared-sauna company, privately held and run by the Zack family. Founded as Sunlight Saunas in 1999; Connie and Aaron Zack left corporate careers at Procter & Gamble to help build it and became owners. Unlike most of the category, Sunlighten has stayed independent — and has itself become an acquirer, buying the assets of cold-therapy brand Ice Barrel in May 2025 and running it as a wholly owned subsidiary.

HigherDOSE was founded in 2016 by Lauren Berlingeri and Katie Kaps, opening as one of New York's first infrared-sauna studios before pivoting to at-home devices — the infrared sauna blanket that became its signature product, plus PEMF mats and red-light masks. The two founders still run the company as co-CEOs, but it has taken meaningful venture capital (a reported ~$50M round led by Northstar Ventures at roughly a $120M valuation). It's a founder-driven brand with the growth-and-exit expectations that come with institutional money — a small but fast-moving player bringing 'sauna' into the direct-to-consumer wellness aisle.

⚠ A wellness-tech brand founded in 2016 by Lauren Berlingeri and Katie Kaps, best known for its infrared sauna blanket, PEMF mat, and red-light face mask. It started as an infrared-sauna studio in New York and pivoted to at-home devices. Venture-backed (a reported ~$50M round led by Northstar Ventures valued it around $120M) but still led by its two founders as co-CEOs.

Plunge was founded in 2020 by Michael Garrett and Ryan Duey, catching the pandemic-era cold-plunge wave at exactly the right moment. A 2021 Shark Tank deal with Robert Herjavec gave it capital and profile, and the brand grew explosively — around $100M in revenue by 2024 — while expanding from cold plunges into saunas. The founders still run it, but Plunge has taken outside investment (including crowdfunding raises at a ~$90–100M valuation), which sets the usual expectation for a venture-backed brand: keep scaling toward a bigger raise, an acquisition, or an IPO. For now it's the founder-led leader of a booming new category.

⚠ The category-leading cold-plunge brand (now also selling saunas), founded in 2020 by Michael Garrett and Ryan Duey during the pandemic cold-plunge boom. It landed a Shark Tank deal with Robert Herjavec in 2021, grew to roughly $100M in annual revenue by 2024, and has raised capital including crowdfunding rounds on Wefunder at a ~$90–100M valuation. Founder-led but outside-invested — an eventual larger raise, sale, or IPO is the implied trajectory.

Redwood Outdoors was founded near Seattle by Killian Lannen and Nicholas Jensen as a direct-to-consumer outdoor-wellness brand, selling barrel and cabin saunas and cold plunges online at prices well below the traditional dealer channel. It's a product of the same home-wellness boom that lifted Plunge and others — reaching customers directly rather than through showrooms. The company is privately held and still founder-run, one of the independent newcomers in a category otherwise shaped by roll-ups and conglomerates.

⚠ A direct-to-consumer outdoor-wellness brand founded by Killian Lannen and Nicholas Jensen, based near Seattle. Sells outdoor and barrel saunas, cold plunges, and related gear online at prices below traditional dealers — part of the DTC wave that made home saunas and cold plunges accessible to a broader market. Privately held and founder-run.

Dundalk LeisureCraft started in 2004 with two employees in Dundalk, Ontario and grew into a well-regarded family-owned maker of solid-wood cedar saunas, barrel saunas, cold plunges, and outdoor furniture (its Canadian Timber line is a favorite among home-sauna buyers). It sells through dealers across North America and Europe but has stayed privately held and family-run — a hands-on manufacturer in a category increasingly dominated by public companies and financial owners. Its independence and wood-craft focus are central to how the brand is perceived.

⚠ A family-owned Canadian manufacturer founded in 2004 in Dundalk (now Melancthon), Ontario, making solid-wood cedar saunas, barrel saunas, cold plunges, and outdoor furniture under the Canadian Timber and LeisureCraft lines. Sells through the trade to dealers across Canada, the US, and Europe. Privately held and family-run.

Finnleo is the North American sauna brand of the Sauna360 group (the former TylöHelo), combining Finnish and American heritage to serve the US market with traditional and infrared saunas. When Masco acquired Sauna360 in 2023, Finnleo came with it — meaning the 'Finnish' sauna many Americans buy through Finnleo dealers is, at the ownership level, a product of a Michigan-based public conglomerate best known for paint and plumbing.

⚠ A large US home-products conglomerate (Behr paint, Delta faucets, Hansgrohe) that entered the sauna category in 2023 when its Watkins Wellness division acquired Sauna360 Group — the parent of the heritage Nordic sauna brands Tylö, Helo, Finnleo, Amerec, and Kastor. Sauna360 had been private-equity-backed (Nordic Mezzanine) and preparing for a 2024 IPO before Masco bought it. The result: some of the most storied Finnish and Swedish sauna names are now owned by an American public conglomerate.

Helo traces its roots to 1919 and grew into one of the largest sauna-heater manufacturers in the world, a cornerstone of Finnish sauna heritage. It sits within the Sauna360 group alongside Tylö and Finnleo — and like its stablemates, its ultimate owner became the US conglomerate Masco when Masco's Watkins Wellness arm acquired Sauna360 in 2023. A century-old Finnish heater brand is now a small part of a large American home-products company.

⚠ A large US home-products conglomerate (Behr paint, Delta faucets, Hansgrohe) that entered the sauna category in 2023 when its Watkins Wellness division acquired Sauna360 Group — the parent of the heritage Nordic sauna brands Tylö, Helo, Finnleo, Amerec, and Kastor. Sauna360 had been private-equity-backed (Nordic Mezzanine) and preparing for a 2024 IPO before Masco bought it. The result: some of the most storied Finnish and Swedish sauna names are now owned by an American public conglomerate.

Tylö has made saunas and steam rooms in Halmstad, Sweden since the 1950s and is one of the most respected names in Nordic heat wellness. It became part of the TylöHelo group, later renamed Sauna360, which was backed by private equity (Nordic Mezzanine) and aiming for a stock-market listing. Instead, in 2023, the American home-products giant Masco — parent of Behr paint and Delta faucets — bought Sauna360 through its Watkins Wellness division. So a quintessentially Swedish sauna brand is now owned, ultimately, by a US public conglomerate answering to Wall Street.

⚠ A large US home-products conglomerate (Behr paint, Delta faucets, Hansgrohe) that entered the sauna category in 2023 when its Watkins Wellness division acquired Sauna360 Group — the parent of the heritage Nordic sauna brands Tylö, Helo, Finnleo, Amerec, and Kastor. Sauna360 had been private-equity-backed (Nordic Mezzanine) and preparing for a 2024 IPO before Masco bought it. The result: some of the most storied Finnish and Swedish sauna names are now owned by an American public conglomerate.

Harvia was founded in 1950 in Muurame, Finland, and grew into the world's best-known maker of sauna heaters and rooms. Since listing on Nasdaq Helsinki in 2018 it has become the industry's consolidator, using public-market capital to acquire brand after brand — Sentiotec, Almost Heaven, EOS, Kirami, and ThermaSol among them. For consumers, buying 'a Harvia' still means buying from a genuine sauna specialist with deep heritage; but the company that owns it is now a scale-driven public roll-up whose incentives run toward margin, breadth, and international growth rather than artisanal focus.

⚠ The dominant global sauna company and the industry's most active acquirer. Founded in 1950 and listed on Nasdaq Helsinki in 2018, Harvia has rolled up a large share of the market — buying Sentiotec (2016), Almost Heaven Saunas (2018), a majority of Germany's EOS (2020), Finland's Kirami, and the US steam-generator maker ThermaSol (2024). As a public company it faces quarterly earnings pressure, and its strategy is explicitly consolidation: acquire brands, centralize manufacturing and sourcing, and expand internationally.

Health Mate produced the first infrared home sauna sold in the US in 1979, predating nearly every brand on the market today, and still manufactures at scale. Its ownership is the surprise: Health Mate is a subsidiary of South Korea's Samick Group, a manufacturing conglomerate best known for building musical instruments for Steinway and Gibson. The oldest American infrared-sauna name, then, is not the independent pioneer it might appear to be — it's a brand inside a large Korean industrial group, a reminder that even category originators often sit under corporate parents consumers never see.

⚠ One of the oldest infrared-sauna brands in the world, having produced the first infrared home sauna sold in the US in 1979. Health Mate is a subsidiary of South Korea's Samick Group — a large manufacturing conglomerate best known for building musical instruments for iconic names like Steinway and Gibson. So the pioneering American infrared brand is, at the ownership level, Korean-owned.

Saunum was founded in Estonia in 2014 around a patented technology that distributes heat and humidity evenly through a sauna — a genuine engineering angle in a heritage-driven category. Rather than sell to a consolidator, Saunum went public, listing on the Nasdaq Baltic First North growth market in December 2020 in an IPO oversubscribed more than ten times. That makes it a rarity: a small, independent, publicly traded sauna innovator (one of only a couple of listed pure-plays alongside the much larger Harvia), with ownership spread across its founders and a base of mostly Baltic public shareholders.

⚠ An Estonian sauna-technology company founded in 2014, known for a patented system that distributes heat and humidity evenly through a sauna (and for air-circulation and climate-equalizing devices). Saunum listed on the Nasdaq Baltic First North growth market in December 2020 in an IPO that was oversubscribed more than tenfold — making it one of the few publicly traded pure-play sauna companies, alongside Harvia.

Almost Heaven Saunas built its reputation over four decades as the largest US manufacturer of traditional and barrel saunas, made in West Virginia. In 2018 it was acquired by Harvia, giving the Finnish public company an American manufacturing base and distribution foothold. The barrels still ship from Appalachia, but the brand is now one line inside a Helsinki-listed consolidator — a classic case of an independent American maker becoming a node in a foreign public company's growth strategy.

⚠ The dominant global sauna company and the industry's most active acquirer. Founded in 1950 and listed on Nasdaq Helsinki in 2018, Harvia has rolled up a large share of the market — buying Sentiotec (2016), Almost Heaven Saunas (2018), a majority of Germany's EOS (2020), Finland's Kirami, and the US steam-generator maker ThermaSol (2024). As a public company it faces quarterly earnings pressure, and its strategy is explicitly consolidation: acquire brands, centralize manufacturing and sourcing, and expand internationally.

ThermaSol has made residential steam-shower systems and generators since 1958, building a name in the US luxury-bath market with its Texas design-and-assembly operation. In July 2024 Harvia acquired 100% of ThermaSol for about $30 million, adding steam to its heat-wellness portfolio. ThermaSol continues as its own brand, but ownership now sits with the Finnish public consolidator — the newest US name to join Harvia's collection.

⚠ The dominant global sauna company and the industry's most active acquirer. Founded in 1950 and listed on Nasdaq Helsinki in 2018, Harvia has rolled up a large share of the market — buying Sentiotec (2016), Almost Heaven Saunas (2018), a majority of Germany's EOS (2020), Finland's Kirami, and the US steam-generator maker ThermaSol (2024). As a public company it faces quarterly earnings pressure, and its strategy is explicitly consolidation: acquire brands, centralize manufacturing and sourcing, and expand internationally.