🚀 Explore this insightful post from TechCrunch 📖
📂 **Category**: Fundraising,Hardware,Startups,Fashion,Seven Seven Six,Hair styling,HaloBraid
💡 **What You’ll Learn**:
fund. Boho. No contract. Most black women understand exactly what these words refer to: braided hairstyles. This thousand-year-old ritual is considered a rite of passage, with many Black women and girls even today sitting in salon chairs, for up to 12 hours straight, while a stylist weaves patterns into their hair.
But that’s also the problem. For thousands of years, hair braiding has been a manual task. Until recently, that is. Speaking to TechCrunch, Yinka Ogunbiyi recalled when she was stuck alone in her London apartment during the Covid-19 pandemic and tried to braid her hair herself: “It took me four days.”
Ogunbiyi, who holds a master’s degree in engineering from Harvard University as well as an MBA, had previously founded a smart cooking appliance company, and began to view the braiding process as a technical problem to solve.
After years of research, on Tuesday it launched a robotics startup: HaloBraid aims to help salons speed up the braiding process with its first device, set to launch later this year, that serves as a braiding assistant for professional hairstylists. The company has raised $7 million in a seed round led by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian’s venture firm, Seven Seven Six.
Ogunbiyi didn’t go into many details about the device, saying there are still patents pending, but she explained how it works: The stylist starts the braiding process and then hands the process over to HaloBraid, who can finish the rest of the braid in seconds. She noted that the product is meant to be gentle on the hair, and that it can help with knotless braids and box braids.
In her research, Ogunbiyi found that people spend an estimated 8 billion hours braiding hair each year. In a survey she conducted of 2,000 people, she said 95% said they would braid their hair more if it took less time. At the same time, designers have to work long hours and can face health problems such as carpal tunnel or arthritis.
To Ohanian, it was clear that there was a big market and revenue potential for a device that could make braiding easier.
Ohanian is married to Serena Williams, a Black woman famous for some of her braided hairstyles on the tennis court. He also has two black children who practice braiding. “I studied exactly how long these braiding sessions take,” he told TechCrunch. “My eldest daughter loves the ritual in the first few hours, but by 9, everyone is ready to complete the ritual.”
He noted how Dyson has helped transform hair styling tools (as with its popular hair dryer) while textured hair technology remains unexplored “despite a loyal audience eager to spend”.
“This is the hardware moment,” he continued, citing other investments he has made, such as rocket company Stoke and asteroid mining company AstroForge. “The automated braiding device appears to be eminently buildable. This is a truly special product, with a clear entry into the market.”
Other investors in the seed round include AlleyCorp and Bling Capital. The startup will use the new funding to develop products, manufacture and secure salon partnerships.
HaloBraid doesn’t have many competitors in the hair braiding device market, the most notable being Braidiant. Ogunbiyi said one of the reasons it’s difficult to innovate in this area is because the hair itself is difficult to work with, especially when it comes to a complex process like braiding. In fact, she said that hair is one of the “hardest substrates in the world to manipulate,” and that she had to borrow methods from different industries, from materials science to inkjet printing, to make this device.
Armed with new money and validation, the startup now has to make it through launch day. But Ogunbiyi said she and her team of 15 are already thinking about creating other devices, such as one that can untwist braids (a process that can often take as much time as the braiding process itself).
“HaloBraid is our first product, but our bigger vision is to create cutting-edge technology that makes hair care faster, easier, more convenient and more enjoyable,” she said.
When you buy through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This does not affect our editorial independence.
⚡ **What’s your take?**
Share your thoughts in the comments below!
#️⃣ **#HaloBraid #raises #million #sixhour #hair #salon #appointment**
🕒 **Posted on**: 1782233587
🌟 **Want more?** Click here for more info! 🌟
