Material science · Circular economy · Made in Kenya

We turn agricultural waste into the tree-free pulp inside period products.

Every pad and diaper is built on an absorbent core, and today that core means felled trees and imported plastic. Nyungu Afrika makes the same core from pineapple leaves and maize husks: patent-pending, biodegradable, and designed to cut manufacturers’ costs while sitting outside deforestation rules. One material, two problems solved, period poverty and deforestation.

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Tree-free pulpPatent-pending (PCT published)Validated in 5 countries850% absorptionMade in Thika, KenyaPre-market · TRL 6Safe, sustainable & equitable periods Tree-free pulpPatent-pending (PCT published)Validated in 5 countries850% absorptionMade in Thika, KenyaPre-market · TRL 6Safe, sustainable & equitable periods
01 The broken input

Two problems. One material.

Period poverty and deforestation are usually treated as separate crises. They meet in a single place: the absorbent core inside a sanitary pad.

A

Period poverty

65%

of women and girls in Kenya can’t afford period products (FSG). Conventional pads are priced on imported, dollar-denominated wood pulp, keeping them permanently out of reach for the poorest, and driving girls out of school.

B

Deforestation & waste

1.5B

trees are felled every year for wood-pulp cellulose, while conventional pads are up to 90% plastic that takes 500+ years to break down. The material underneath the whole industry is extractive and expensive.

A + B, what if one fixed the other?

Fix the material, and you fix both.

Replace the tree-based, dollar-priced core with a local, low-cost one made from waste, and safe pads become affordable while forests stay standing.

02 Our story

Why we do this.

Nyungu, Swahili for the clay pot, is a symbol of the womb: the vessel at the centre of life. Founder Mary Nyaruai grew up in Thika, Kenya’s pineapple capital, surrounded by two things at once: mountains of pineapple waste from the farms, and girls missing school because they couldn’t afford a pad. Nyungu Afrika began as one question, what if the waste could solve the shame? That became a patent-pending process that turns that waste into the material safe, affordable period care is built from. We don’t just make a product; we’re rebuilding the raw material the whole industry depends on.

03 How it works

From farm waste to absorbent core, in four steps.

01 / 04

Source

Pineapple leaves and maize husks; agricultural waste, collected locally in Thika, co-located with our feedstock. Near-zero cost, no new land, no felled trees.

02 / 04

Transform

Our patent-pending process strips the fibre into a clean, high-performance pulp with very low lignin, meaning far less chemical processing to purify.

03 / 04

Supply

The pulp becomes the absorbent core, a drop-in replacement for wood pulp that pad and diaper makers can run on existing lines.

04 / 04

Return

At end of life it biodegrades in months, not centuries, back to soil, full circle, and outside EU deforestation rules by design.

04 What we’re building

Not a pad brand. A platform.

Most startups launch one more retail pad to fight the giants. We make the material inside the pad, so every manufacturer becomes a customer, not a rival. These are the streams we’re building toward, in sequence, after our pilot. None are live today.

Core · first

B2B pulp supply

Tree-free absorbent pulp sold to pad and diaper manufacturers, designed to cut their raw-material costs by up to 40% versus imported wood pulp.

Near-term
Core · scale

Technology licensing

Licensing our patent-pending process to pulp mills worldwide, asset-light, high-margin, and how the solution scales beyond our own plant.

Year 2+
Consumer proof

XETU pads

Our own biodegradable pad brand, the proof point that shows the pulp performs, reaching women through retail and NGO/B2G channels.

Pilot
05 Why now

Three forces converging.

Regulation

EUDR

EU deforestation and single-use-plastic rules are tightening through 2026–27, pushing manufacturers off virgin wood pulp. Our crop-waste pulp sits outside their scope.

Capital

$246B

FemTech is projected toward $246B by 2035, with women’s-health and circular-economy funding surging, a decade after menstruation was unfundable and unspoken.

Demand

No alternative

Global hygiene brands face net-zero mandates with no scalable, cost-competitive non-wood core, the exact gap we’re built to fill.

06 Impact so far

Small scale today. Built to scale.

We’re pre-market, but the groundwork is already touching real lives and real waste streams, the roots of what we’re building.

30,000+
kg of agricultural waste processed
5,000+
students reached with menstrual-health education
50+
green jobs created in our value chain
6
UN Sustainable Development Goals advanced

Figures from Nyungu Afrika micro-scale operations to date. Full impact methodology available to partners on request.

07 Recognition & validation

Proven science. Trusted rooms.

Our material has been independently lab-tested across five countries (UK, Germany, India, Japan, Kenya), the process is published under the PCT, and our founder sits on the KEBS committee writing Kenya’s biodegradable-hygiene standards.

PCT Published Process Patent
TRL 6 · 5-country validated
TotalEnergies Best Female Entrepreneur in Africa 2022
Deep Tech Summit Most Promising African Startup 2025
Techstars Sustainability Paris
Circular Valley Accelerator
KEBS Technical Committee (TC 069)
What Design Can Do No Waste Challenge
USADF
08 Founder

“Ignoring, underfunding and under-researching the reproductive health of half the world is not a women’s problem. It is an injustice to the very people who gave us life. Periods should cost women neither their health nor their planet.”

Mary Nyaruai
Founder & CEO · Inventor · KEBS Technical Committee
09 FAQ

Things you might be wondering.

What does Nyungu Afrika actually make?
A patent-pending, tree-free absorbent pulp made from pineapple leaves and maize husks, the core material inside sanitary pads and diapers. We’re a material-science company that supplies manufacturers, with our own pad brand (XETU) as the consumer proof point.
Can I buy your products now?
Not yet, we’re pre-market and preparing our pilot. Join our beta testers below and you’ll be among the first to try XETU when we launch.
What makes your pulp different?
It’s made from agricultural waste (no trees, no new land), independently tested at 850% absorption across five countries, designed to cut manufacturers’ costs by up to 40%, and it sits outside EU deforestation rules because it isn’t tree-based.
Where are you based?
Thika, Kenya, the country’s pineapple capital, and our raw-material source. Co-locating with our feedstock keeps costs low and emissions down.
How can I support or partner with Nyungu?
Join our beta community, pilot our pulp if you’re a manufacturer, partner on menstrual-health distribution, or invest. Get in touch.

Be first to make periods green.

We’re launching soon. Join our beta testers and you’ll be among the first to hear when we go live, and the first to try what we’ve built.

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