How Yinka Ogunbiyi Built HaloBraid Into a $7 Million Startup

In the beauty industry, innovation is often associated with new products, premium salons, or celebrity brands. But for Nigerian American engineer Yinka Ogunbiyi, the breakthrough came from a deeply personal experience that millions of Black women know all too well: spending endless hours in a salon chair.

That experience has now evolved into HaloBraid, the world’s first patented braid assist robot, a technology designed to transform professional braiding while preserving the artistry that defines the craft.

Backed by $7 million in seed funding and with more than 7,000 salons already on its waiting list, HaloBraid is emerging as one of the most promising beauty technology startups in the United States. More importantly, it represents another example of African talent leading innovation on the global stage.

The funding round was led by Seven Seven Six, the venture capital firm founded by Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian, alongside investments from AlleyCorp and Bling Capital. The capital will accelerate HaloBraid’s commercial rollout as demand for faster and more efficient salon services continues to rise.

For Ogunbiyi, the inspiration did not come from a laboratory or research facility. It began during the COVID 19 pandemic after she spent four days installing her own knotless braids.

The experience highlighted a problem that professional hairstylists have faced for decades. Braiding is physically demanding, repetitive, and often places enormous strain on the hands, wrists, shoulders, and back of salon professionals.

Rather than accepting the challenge as part of the profession, Ogunbiyi saw an opportunity to engineer a solution.

Drawing on her background in consumer electronics and smart home technology, along with a joint Master of Science and Master of Business Administration from Harvard Engineering School and Harvard Business School, she partnered with cofounder David Afolabi to create HaloBraid.

Unlike traditional automation, HaloBraid is not designed to replace hairstylists.

Instead, it serves as a collaborative tool.

Stylists continue to perform the creative and technical aspects of the hairstyle by sectioning the hair, creating the foundation braid, and completing the final finish. HaloBraid takes over the repetitive mid shaft braiding process that consumes the majority of appointment time before handing control back to the stylist.