Yinka Ogunbiyi has raised $7 million in seed funding for HaloBraid, a robot built to help professional hairstylists braid hair faster and with less physical strain.
The round was led by Seven Seven Six, the venture capital firm started by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, with support from AlleyCorp and Bling Capital.
Ogunbiyi is a biomechanical engineer who holds a joint Master of Science and Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard University. Before starting HaloBraid, she built smart kitchen appliances and connected home devices at a company called Desora.
The idea for the robot came from a personal experience. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Ogunbiyi spent four days installing her own knotless braids. The process left her exhausted and made her wonder if engineering could shorten it.
She partnered with co-founder David Afolabi, and the two built more than 600 prototypes while testing how different materials and mechanisms could handle human hair without pulling or causing discomfort.
How It Works
HaloBraid does not braid hair on its own. A stylist still sections the client’s scalp and starts each braid by hand, forming the anchor knot that holds the tension and shape. The stylist then hands the unfinished section to the robot, which completes the repetitive middle-to-end weaving. Once that part is done, the stylist finishes the braid by sealing and trimming the ends.
According to reporting, the robot can complete this repetitive stage up to five times faster than a stylist working by hand alone. This has the effect of cutting total appointment time by roughly half.
The device currently works only on box braids and knotless braids. It cannot create cornrows, cannot work directly against the scalp, and cannot decide the pattern or style of a braid. Ogunbiyi has said this is intentional.
“I don’t think anything will get lost from the experience. If anything, it enriches it. Technology simply assists with the repetitive movements that consume the most time and place the greatest strain on the body,” she said.
Why Investors Are Interested
Braiding is physically demanding work. Long hours of repetitive hand and wrist motion have been linked to early carpal tunnel syndrome, arthritis, and shoulder and back strain among professional braiders. By taking over the most repetitive stage of the process, HaloBraid could reduce that strain and let stylists serve more clients in a day without working longer hours.
The global salon-services market is estimated at roughly $270 billion, and textured-hair tools have received far less investment than skincare or general haircare products. Investors see this as a gap with room to grow.
More than 7,000 salons have already joined a waiting list for the device. Rather than selling the robot outright, HaloBraid plans to place it in salons at no upfront cost and take a percentage of the revenue from each appointment that uses it. This lowers the barrier for salon owners to try the technology, though the company’s long-term success will depend on how much revenue it takes, how reliable the machine proves to be, and whether clients accept machine-assisted braiding.
HaloBraid is expected to begin appearing in selected salons in September 2026. The release will test whether the robot performs consistently across different hair textures, lengths, and salon settings, something that has not yet been proven outside development and testing.
If it works as intended, HaloBraid would be one of the first serious attempts to bring robotics into a corner of the beauty industry that has largely been left out of the current era of automation.
