Nigerian-American engineer Yinka Ogunbiyi has developed HaloBraid, the world’s first robot designed to assist professional hairstylists with braiding, helping to reduce the time and physical effort required for the job.
The innovation has attracted significant investor interest, securing $7 million in seed funding while more than 7,000 salons have already joined the waiting list ahead of its official launch.
The United States Mission in Nigeria celebrated the achievement in a post on X on Friday, describing HaloBraid as a groundbreaking invention.
It wrote:
“Nigerian-American engineer & Harvard grad Yinka Ogunbiyi built HaloBraid, the world’s first braid-assist robot, easing strain on stylists & saving salons time. $7M raised, 7,000+ salons waitlisted.”
The funding round was led by Seven Seven Six, the venture capital company founded by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, with support from AlleyCorp and Bling Capital.
Ogunbiyi holds a joint Master of Science and Master of Business Administration from Harvard Engineering School and Harvard Business School. Before starting HaloBraid, she built a career designing connected home appliances and consumer technology.
The idea for the robot came during the COVID-19 pandemic after she spent four days installing her own knotless braids. She later partnered with David Afolabi to bring the invention to life.
HaloBraid is not intended to replace hairstylists. Instead, it serves as a tool to support them by taking over the repetitive braiding stage after the stylist has sectioned the hair and created the initial anchor knot manually.
