Ruka
Premium hair extensions for black women
- 21-100 employees
- B2C
- Consumer Goods
- Beauty
- eCommerce
- Hackney, London, UK
Jump to section
Company mission
To create hair and beauty solutions that truly work, by listening closely and making the outsiders our insiders.
67% female employees
Our take
RUKA was founded due to the lack of companies in the hair space that truly served and understood the needs of black women. Despite the huge demand, there were few multinational organisations meeting this market, so RUKA provides a direct-to-consumer hair extension service, bringing personalisation and choice to customers through a customised and curated shopping experience.
The word 'RUKA' means 'doing hair', and RUKA aims to embody this by creating beauty and hair solutions that really work, by listening closely to customers. It makes hair products with real textures in mind, having tested textures with its co-creator community.
Its products include clip-ins and ponytails in several styles, offering an online quiz for customers to discover their curl pattern and find out what products suit them best. Rather than just using broad categories like 'kinky' or 'coily', RUKA sells a wide variety of extensions to mimic real curl patterns.
In the future, RUKA aims to continue its growth and help more customers, while becoming the most ethical brand in the industry. Its partners have been verified for ethical working practices, while its entire manufacturing process is chemical free.
Freddie
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Benefits
- Flexible hours and hybrid/remote working to help meet your lifestyle goals
- Dedicated fortnightly learning and development time plus a £1000 learning grant
- Additional sick leave allocation for people who menstruate
- 25 days of paid annual leave with option to take unpaid time off if you need it
- Competitive compensation and pension contribution plus generous equity option as an early employee
- A passionate core team excited to work collaboratively to build an incredible business addressing an underserved market
- Fun team perks including social events
- Free RUKA products and merchandise for you, plus family and friends discount
Leadership
Varaidzo Tendai Moyo
(CEO)Studied at LSE whilst co-founding at Educo then Strom Collection, and working as a consultant at Bain. In September 2020, they founded RUKA, and has served full-time as CEO since.
Ugo Agbai
(Co-Founder)Studied at Imperial College whilst co-founding Strom Collection, then working as a digital consultant at McKinsey & Co. They worked on RUKA part-time before joining full-time as COO in April 2021.