Name: Ira Guha
Company: Asan
Position: Founder and CEO
Website: https://asancup.com/
About Ira Guha
Ira Guha, who lives in London, is the founder and CEO of Asan, a sustainable period product that can last for up to 10 years. She has a degree in Politics from Cambridge University and a Master’s in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School.
Through her work, Ira is now helping to eradicate period poverty around the world, which came following a heartbreaking realisation.
When working for a consulting firm, Ira took a visit to her parents in Bangalore, where she discovered the sad impact of period poverty. Following a difficult conversation, a young woman who worked for Ira’s family told her that she was unable to work because of period rashes and a urinary tract infection. This left her unable to work for several days, due to using cheap sanitation pads, which was the only thing that she could afford. Ira was left completely shocked.
“I took period products for granted and couldn’t believe that someone I knew well was missing out on work due to her period. However, it just took me a few mins of Googling to realise that this experience was completely universal – with 1.6 billion women and girls globally not being able to access safe period care.”
Ira showed the woman a period cup that she had been using and offered to purchase her one from the UK. She took to it instantly, and could easily work on her period, even asking Ira to bring more cups for her sister and niece.
“Talk about period cups began to spread and every time I travelled home from London to Bangalore I would carry lots of period cups and distribute them to women in my community. It was saving them money and most importantly enabling them to work easily on their period.”
As a graduate student at Harvard University, Ira made it her mission to develop one of the world’s best-quality menstrual cups, which is a reusable alternative to sanitary pads and tampons. Ira was able to launch the business in 2021 with a grant from Cambridge University, where she used the funds to purchase a manufacturing mold and create the first batch of menstrual cups.
To help improve period poverty, Ira decided that for every cup Asan sells, they will donate one for free to a woman or girl who suffers. Asan also aims to avert millions of tonnes of landfill waste generated by tampons and pads.
“Our vision for the next 3 years is to transform the lives of over 1 million low-income women and girls – enabling them to attend school and work during periods – and to avert more than 2 billion plastic period products from entering landfills.”
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