The second edition of the Business of Beauty Global Awards were recently held during the 2025 Business of Beauty Global Forum which took place in Napa Valley, California.
The Awards seek to recognise founders across three categories in the beauty industry: Creative Execution, Business Innovation and Positive Impact in two tracks: emerging businesses with less than $2 million in annual revenues and breakthrough businesses with up to $10 million in revenue. The winners were selected from applications from 17 countries on five continents.
One of the winners was Ruka, a UK based hair brand co-founded by Zimbabwean entrepreneur, Tendai Moyo. Ruka offers sustainable alternative to human hair fiber while addressing the urgent need for non-toxic, ethically-sourced hair extension products. The brand walked away with the Positive Impact: Breakthrough Track Award, and was the only African founder winner from the second edition of the Awards.
Co-founder and CEO of Ruka, Tendai Moyo was also one of the speakers at the invite-only forum headlined by beauty brands founders Hailey Bieber and Tracee Ellis Ross.
Founded in 2020, Ruka is on a mission to transform the hair extensions industry by bringing together beauty and biotech to create a synthetic fibre that is the closest thing to human hair. Since launching, the brand has had many big achievements including being the first of its kind to have retail space at Selfridges and launching an industry-shifting afro-hair education partnership with Got2B and Schwarzkopf Pro Academy.
Moyo has raised over $9.2 million in venture capital and grants for Ruka including being the first recipient of a $250,000 equity-free grant from The Catalysts powered by New Incubation Ventures and TikTok.
