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In 2020, Val Emanuel went through a major life change after uncovering hormone imbalances and high heavy metal levels in her body. Having struggled with hormonal imbalances, irregular periods, migraines, and painful, heavy periods for years, she decided to rid herself of toxic products and switch to organic personal care products. During this process, Emanuel realized that there were few high-quality, biodegradable, and innovative period care options for women. As a lover of hemp, she decided to pursue making disposable period products from hemp fiber, even though factories told her repeatedly it was impossible. Emanuel launched a crowdfunding campaign a year later, and her best friend and scientist, Rebecca Caputo, started helping. Caputo had also experienced hormone imbalance and infertility. Emanuel brought on Caputo in 2022 and the pair launched the first hemp fiber menstrual pads on the market known as Rif Care.
On track for over $1 million in sales in 2025 and in over 200 retail stores, Caputo and Emanuel have added new investors and founders of Monday Swimwear, Natasha Oakley and Devin Brugman, to their cap table. “Our first investor, a C-suite executive at BlackRock, had experience with contracts, M&A and also looked over every single deck and deal. I don’t know if we could have done it without him and he also was our BIGGEST cheerleader. Now, we are looking to bring on more influential women who know how to sell to and talk to other women marketing-wise. Natasha and Devin are amazing at direct-to-consumer selling, so we are using their advice and expertise as a guiding force for growing online. Before the investment, we did 500k in sales with only 10k spent on ads. Most of it has been organic through social media, word of mouth and smaller retail accounts so now we have money to fuel that growth,” they explained. Ashley Graham, Nancy Twine, La Familia Foundation, Crom Carmichael, Techstar and Jumpstart Foundry are also investors in the brand. In addition to direct-to-consumer growth, Rif Care will be using new investments to hire a sales team as they expand into more retailers nationwide.
Brugman and Oakley felt like they shared a common mission with Rif —to celebrate, uplift, and improve the lives of women. Oakley initially reached out via an Instagram message to Emanuel asking to see if Rif was open to new investors. “That alignment really stood out. We’re both female-founded with all-female teams, which creates a strong sense of shared values and vision. I’ve been consistently impressed by Val and Rebecca’s passion and the thoughtfulness behind Rif. Their authenticity and commitment made it a natural decision to get involved,” they shared. “As a first step, we’re working closely with them to build out a diverse, thorough, and effective marketing plan tailored to their key markets. We’re also making some early suggestions on product development to support growth and differentiation.”
Women on average are exposed to 168 harmful chemicals every day that can affect hormones and reproduction. Rif Care is one of the only period care brands utilizing hemp for period care, “Hemp is a super fiber that was one of the most utilized materials for thousands of years and then when it became illegal, its use became taboo and its availability became more limited. Hemp produces a high-performing fiber that’s super absorbent and comfortable. It doesn’t need any pesticides to grow. It is naturally antibacterial, antimicrobial and grows with less water than cotton. Hemp is also an amazing fiber as a non-woven, which is its newest use that we brought to market. We also think there was an opportunity to make hemp less crunchy and more modern, and approachable to women,” shared Caputo and Emanuel.
Educating women is another big pillar in Rif’s mission from cycle education to understanding the ingredients in personal care products. “As women, we have to shop for food and beauty products with our health in mind and really know what every ingredient means. There’s growing awareness of the toxins in personal care products. From heavy metals found in tampons to PFA forever chemicals in our underwear, women are learning how companies have taken shortcuts that make us sick and cause our hormones to get out of whack. Some women are choosing to change their buying habits once they learn this.Did you know that conventional tampons can shed up to 160 billion nano plastics? And that’s not over a lifetime — that’s every month! It would be hard for me to learn that and still use polyurethane and viscose tampons!” exclaimed Emanuel. To make all this information more digestible the co-wrote an e-book about periods called the Menarche Manual alongside Gynecologist, Dr. Carrillo, and Rif’s in-house endometriosis expert, Andoeni Ruezga.
Currently Rif Care sells three hero products: leak proof period underwear, pads with wings and tampons. When asked about new product developments, nursing pads and expansion of the period underwear are in the pipeline for this year. You can find Rif Care at Erewhon, Gelsons, Lassens, Mom’s and online.
“}]] Founders of Rif Care, Val Emanuel and Rebecca Caputo, have added Monday Swimwear founders, Natasha Oakley and Devin Brugman, to their cap table as they scale nationwide. Read More
