Ruby Raut created WUKA, Britain’s first reusable period underwear company, after drawing on her personal encounters with menstrual stigma and period poverty in Nepal. Her efforts earned recognition at the Tide Everywoman Entrepreneur Awards, where she received the Entrepreneur For Good prize for founders combining impact with business growth. The awards have helped women-led firms expand, gain funding and increase their profile despite ongoing challenges for female entrepreneurs. Raut has developed WUKA into a recognised brand that questions conventional attitudes toward menstruation. In a DESIblitz interview she described building the company amid cultural silence, funding obstacles and a goal to normalise periods. Raut grew up in Nepal in a low-income family of three daughters. Her father earned under three dollars daily, covering food, schooling and household needs. When she began menstruating, pads were unaffordable and scarce, so her mother fashioned products from old cotton sarees. The Nepali term for periods, Nachune, translates as untouchable, and during her first cycle she was sent to stay with relatives. These experiences prompted the creation of WUKA, whose name stands for Wake Up Kick Ass. The brand aims to reduce stigma, inequality and limited access affecting many people globally, with affordability, education and sustainability as core aims. Introducing reusable period underwear in Britain presented further difficulties, including explaining a new product category and confronting long-standing taboos. Raut noted a triple challenge: lack of awareness about the innovation, widespread silence around menstruation, and the need to change long-established habits. As an immigrant founder she also faced additional barriers. She said confidence grew through action and persistence rather than prior certainty, and that limited knowledge of the obstacles ahead proved helpful in the UK market.
