HaloBraid raises $7M from Seven Seven Six to end the six-hour hair salon appointment
HaloBraid raises $7M from Seven Seven Six to end the six-hour hair salon appointment
HaloBraid 获 Seven Seven Six 700 万美元融资，旨在终结长达六小时的编发预约
Box. Boho. Knotless. Most Black women understand exactly what those words refer to: braided hairstyles. The thousand-year-old ritual is practically a rite of passage, and many Black women and girls even today sit in salon chairs, up to 12 hours at a stretch, as 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. Box（方块辫）、Boho（波西米亚风）、Knotless（无结辫）。大多数黑人女性都非常清楚这些词指的是什么：编发造型。这种拥有千年历史的仪式几乎是一种成年礼，即使在今天，许多黑人女性和女孩仍需在美发沙龙的椅子上连续坐上长达 12 个小时，让造型师为她们编织发型。但这正是问题所在。几千年来，编发一直是一项纯手工任务。不过，这种情况最近发生了改变。
Speaking to TechCrunch, Yinka Ogunbiyi recalled when she was stuck alone in her London apartment during the COVID-19 pandemic and tried braiding her own hair: “It took me four days,” she said. Ogunbiyi, who has an MS in engineering from Harvard as well as an MBA, had previously founded a smart cooking appliance company, and started looking at braiding as a technical problem to be solved. After years of research, on Tuesday, she launched a robotics startup: HaloBraid aims to help salons speed up braiding with its first device, slated to launch later this year, that acts as a braiding assistant for professional stylists. 在接受 TechCrunch 采访时，Yinka Ogunbiyi 回忆起新冠疫情期间她独自困在伦敦公寓里尝试自己编发的情景：“我花了四天时间，”她说。Ogunbiyi 拥有哈佛大学工程学硕士学位和工商管理硕士（MBA）学位，此前曾创办过一家智能烹饪电器公司。她开始将编发视为一个需要解决的技术问题。经过多年的研究，她于周二创办了一家机器人初创公司：HaloBraid。该公司旨在通过其首款设备帮助沙龙加快编发速度，该设备计划于今年晚些时候推出，旨在担任专业造型师的编发助手。
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 much detail about the device, as she said there are still patents pending, but she did explain how it works: A stylist starts the braiding and then hands off the process to HaloBraid, which 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 finish both knotless and box braids. 该公司在由 Reddit 联合创始人 Alexis Ohanian 的风险投资公司 Seven Seven Six 领投的种子轮融资中筹集了 700 万美元。Ogunbiyi 没有透露关于该设备的太多细节，因为她表示相关专利仍在申请中，但她解释了其工作原理：造型师先开始编发，然后将后续过程交给 HaloBraid，后者可以在几秒钟内完成剩余的编发工作。她指出，该产品对头发非常温和，并且可以帮助完成无结辫和方块辫。
In her research, Ogunbiyi found that people spend an estimated 8 billion hours braiding hair each year. She said in her survey of 2,000 people, 95% said they would get their hair braided more often if it took less time. Stylists, meanwhile, have to work long hours and can face health issues like carpal tunnel or arthritis. To Ohanian, it was clear that there’s a sizable market and potential for returns for a device that can make braiding easier. 在研究中，Ogunbiyi 发现人们每年在编发上花费的时间估计高达 80 亿小时。她说，在她对 2000 人的调查中，95% 的人表示，如果编发时间缩短，他们会更频繁地进行编发。与此同时，造型师必须长时间工作，并可能面临腕管综合症或关节炎等健康问题。对于 Ohanian 来说，很明显，一种能让编发变得更简单的设备拥有巨大的市场和回报潜力。
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 sport braided styles. “I’ve studied exactly how long these braiding sessions take,” he told TechCrunch, and added: “My oldest daughter loves the ritual for the first few hours, but by hour nine, everyone’s ready to call it a night.” He noted how Dyson has helped transform tooling for hair styles (like with their famous hair dryer) while tech for textured hair remains unexplored “despite a loyal audience that’s eager to spend.” Ohanian 的妻子是塞雷娜·威廉姆斯（Serena Williams），这位黑人女性以其在网球场上的多种编发造型而闻名。他还有两个留着编发造型的黑人孩子。“我研究过这些编发过程到底需要多长时间，”他告诉 TechCrunch，并补充道：“我的大女儿在前几个小时很享受这个仪式，但到了第九个小时，每个人都想结束了。”他指出，戴森（Dyson）是如何通过其著名的吹风机等产品改变美发工具的，而针对纹理发质的技术却仍未被开发，“尽管这里有一群渴望消费的忠实受众。”
“This is hardware’s moment,” he continued, citing other investments he’s made, like the rocket company Stoke and the asteroid mining company AstroForge. “An automated braider feels eminently buildable. This product is genuinely differentiated, with a clear go-to-market.” Other investors in the seed round include AlleyCorp and Bling Capital. The startup will use the fresh funding for product development, manufacturing, and securing salon partnerships. “现在是硬件的时代，”他继续说道，并列举了他投资的其他公司，如火箭公司 Stoke 和小行星采矿公司 AstroForge。“自动编发机显然是可以制造出来的。这款产品具有真正的差异化，且有明确的市场进入策略。”该种子轮的其他投资者包括 AlleyCorp 和 Bling Capital。这家初创公司将利用这笔新资金进行产品开发、制造以及确保与沙龙的合作关系。
HaloBraid doesn’t have many competitors in the hair-braiding-device market, with the most notable being Braidiant. Ogunbiyi said one reason it has been so hard to innovate in this space is that hair itself is quite difficult to deal with, especially when it comes to a process as intricate as braiding. In fact, she said hair is one of the “trickiest substrates in the world to manipulate,” and that she had to borrow methods from different industries, from material science to inkjet printing, to make this device. 在编发设备市场上，HaloBraid 的竞争对手并不多，其中最著名的是 Braidiant。Ogunbiyi 表示，在这个领域创新之所以如此困难，原因之一是头发本身就很难处理，尤其是在编发这样复杂的过程中。事实上，她说头发是“世界上最难处理的基质之一”，她必须借鉴从材料科学到喷墨打印等不同行业的各种方法，才能制造出这款设备。
Armed with fresh cash and validation, now the startup has to make it through launch day. But Ogunbiyi said she and her team of around 15 are already thinking about other devices to create, like one that can undo braids (a process that can often take just as long as the braiding itself). “HaloBraid is our first product, but our larger vision is to create breakthrough technology that makes textured haircare faster, easier, more comfortable, and more joyful,” she said. 有了充足的资金和验证，现在这家初创公司必须顺利度过发布日。但 Ogunbiyi 表示，她和她约 15 人的团队已经在考虑开发其他设备，例如可以拆除编发的设备（这个过程通常和编发本身一样耗时）。“HaloBraid 是我们的第一款产品，但我们更大的愿景是创造突破性技术，让纹理发质的护理变得更快、更简单、更舒适、更令人愉悦，”她说。