Layo Ogunbanwo is a seasoned product strategist and entrepreneur with over 13 years of experience building impactful digital products across Africa, Latin America, and the U.S. She is the visionary behind Splice, an all-in-one booking, payment, and management platform tailored for beauty and wellness businesses in Africa. Born from her insights during the 2020 COVID lockdown, Splice has empowered over 500 Nigerian salons and spas, serving 90,000+ clients since its public launch in October 2024.
Before launching Splice, Layo served as VP of Product Strategy at PiggyVest, West Africa’s leading savings and investment platform, where she helped scale its product adoption and user engagement. Her career also includes pivotal product leadership roles at Nubank (the largest digital bank in the world) and Axxess (a U.S. healthcare-tech provider), collectively touching more than 100 million users across continents.
Layo is a founding member of the Feminist Coalition, championing women’s rights and gender equality in Nigeria, and she currently mentors startups through Google for Startups Africa Accelerator. She is also the host of the Beyond Beauty Podcast, a weekly series empowering salon and spa founders through candid conversations on business pain points—from no-shows to pricing strategies.
Outside of her professional pursuits, Layo is an avid reader, tennis player, and restaurant enthusiast. Layo Ogunbanwo has spent the last year building Splice, a software platform for salons and spas in Nigeria. Now, she’s taking things a step further with the Beyond Beauty Podcast: a platform for raw, real, and unfiltered conversations about the business of beauty.
In our conversation, Layo shares why she’s doing it, who it’s for, and why it might be the industry’s most important mic yet.
What inspired you to create Splice, and why did you choose to focus on the beauty and wellness industry in Africa?
Splice was born out of a desire to address real challenges faced by beauty and wellness businesses in Nigeria and across Africa. The idea came to me in 2020 while helping a friend who owns a salon in Lagos streamline her operations. I saw firsthand how disconnected tools and manual processes made her business unnecessarily complex. I soon discovered that many beauty businesses faced similar challenges, and I thought to do something to change that.
Africa’s beauty and wellness industry is thriving, yet it remains underserved when it comes to modern management solutions. I realised that it needed a dedicated solution like Splice that not only simplifies operations but also supports growth and customer retention. For now, though, we’re starting with Nigeria.
You’ve worked in tech and product for years. What drew you into the beauty space?
Honestly, I’ve always been a beauty girlie. I like to do my nails, lashes, the whole works. There’s something deeply human about walking into a salon or spa. It’s where people go to feel better, to reset, to be seen. I’ve always admired the people behind that experience, especially the women who run their businesses and build from scratch.
But my deeper involvement started in 2020. A close friend who owns a salon in Lagos was struggling to keep her operations organised. She was juggling everything by herself, and it was chaotic. So I helped her map out a more structured workflow using some basic digital tools. It wasn’t perfect, but it made a difference. And that’s when it clicked for me that this entire industry was operating without real, centralised infrastructure.
That experience pushed me to start researching the beauty and wellness sector more intentionally. I spoke to dozens of business owners, kept hearing essentially the same thing: “We’re figuring it out, but it’s hard.” That gap between talent and tech support is what pulled me in. Beauty businesses are everywhere, but not many people are building for them. That’s the problem I wanted to solve with Splice.
How did your global experience in Latin America, Africa, and the US shape the vision and strategy for Splice?
Working in diverse markets taught me the importance of understanding and addressing the unique needs of specific audiences. In Latin America, for instance, I witnessed the transformative potential of digital banking at scale, while in the United States, I saw how technology streamlined in-home care for patients. Also, I understand the market in Nigeria, having successfully joined in building and scaling one of its most-loved fintech products.
These experiences helped shape my approach to building Splice. I wanted to create a solution deeply rooted in local insights but with the scalability and sophistication of global platforms. In a nutshell, we’re blending global best practices with local relevance, ensuring the product fits the African market while remaining forward-thinking.
Having impacted over 100 million users worldwide through your previous roles, how did that experience influence your approach to building Splice?
Building and scaling products that have impacted millions of users across continents has taught me that the key to success is understanding the end-user’s needs. Whether at PiggyVest, Nubank, or Axxess, the focus was always on creating intuitive, impactful solutions that simplify people’s lives.
This same philosophy drives Splice. We haven’t just built software; we’re solving real problems. Every feature of Splice is designed with beauty professionals in mind—making their work easier, more efficient, and ultimately, more profitable. Today, after barely launching less than 9 months ago, over 500 beauty and wellness businesses rely on Splice to seamlessly manage more than 90,000 customers.
Splice is tailored to beauty and wellness businesses in Africa. What makes your platform uniquely suited to this market?
The short answer is we understand the African beauty market, the businesses that operate in it, and their customers.
Splice is built by Africans, for Africans, with a deep understanding of the local market. Unlike generic solutions in the market, we’ve tailored every feature to meet the unique needs of African beauty businesses—whether it’s enabling payment via local channels or providing tools that address operational challenges specific to salons and spas here.
Our goal isn’t just to provide software, God knows a hundred other startups are already doing that. What we want is to empower beauty and wellness businesses with a tool that feels like it was made for them, because it was.
Why are you launching a Podcast? And why now?
I felt like we needed a place to talk about the business of beauty. About leadership, retention, growth, pricing, burnout, and hiring. The real stuff that salon and spa owners face every day, but don’t always have the space or the language to unpack.
Since launching Splice in September of 2024, I’ve spoken with hundreds of beauty professionals across Nigeria. These are some of the most hardworking and talented entrepreneurs I’ve met. But a lot of them feel isolated. They are figuring things out in silos, with no real community or steady access to knowledge.
I wanted to change that.
The Beyond Beauty Podcast is a place where real people can have real conversations about what it takes to run and grow a beauty business. No platitudes. Just honest, helpful, inspiring stories from people building the industry. It’s our way of giving the industry a voice and support.
The Beyond Beauty Podcast feels very community-focused. Who did you build it for?
I built it for the people who are doing the work. The salon and spa owners with no formal support, aestheticians and therapists trying to keep up with industry trends while holding a team together, stylists who are booked out, but still aren’t sure how to scale.
There’s so much skill and ambition in this industry, but not nearly enough support or visibility. Many don’t even see themselves as business owners when in reality, they’re doing the full work of entrepreneurs, including hiring, managing clients, handling marketing, and even product development in some cases.
This podcast puts their stories at the forefront: the journeys, the challenges, the pivots, and the small wins that don’t usually make it into the spotlight.
What stories are you most excited to tell through this podcast?
The honest ones.
I’m particularly excited about the stories that go beyond aesthetics and “how I started” and into the heart of “how I’m surviving.” Stories about beauty business owners who didn’t know as much as they do now six months ago, who have had to let go of staff, who’ve mastered how to deal with the no-show problems, who’ve struggled with and figured out retention. I want to hear about pricing anxiety, customer drama, burnout, rebranding, breakthroughs, and bounce-backs.
There’s a lot of polish in the beauty industry, and that’s great. But what we don’t see enough of are the layers underneath, the things that every business owner goes through but rarely shares out loud. Those are the stories that make people feel less alone. And those are the stories that teach.
So, yes, we’ll talk about growth, strategy, and systems, but we’ll also talk about doubt, mistakes, and the bounce-backs. Because that’s real life. Because these stories don’t just inspire, but reflect.
How does the Beyond Beauty Podcast connect with what you’re building at Splice?
They’re deeply connected: same mission, different formats.
With Splice, we’re building the software that helps beauty professionals manage bookings, reduce no-shows, automate reminders, track client history, all of that. It’s the operational backbone.
But with the Beyond Beauty Podcast, we’re building the voice. The narrative. The space where beauty professionals can hear from people who’ve walked similar paths, where they can learn what’s working, what’s not, and how others are growing through it.
One supports the “how to do it.” The other supports the “why it’s worth it.”
Too much innovation can slow tech. But I’ve always believed that community and infrastructure should grow together. If we only give people tools but no sense of identity or belonging, they’ll struggle to sustain momentum. But if you give them both, they build better businesses and stay in the game longer.
You’ve had some amazing guests already. Any common threads or surprises?
Yes, definitely.
One thing that keeps coming up is how much beauty professionals are learning on the job. There’s no formal blueprint for how to run a successful salon or spa in Nigeria, so people are figuring it out as they go, through mistakes, word of mouth, and watching others.
And that’s why the conversations are so powerful. Guests are open. They share what they wish they knew earlier, the turning points in their journey, and the systems that helped them grow.
For example, in one episode, two beauty entrepreneurs, Koyin Vera-Cruz of Tresses and Onyekachi Iroha of Beauty Atelier, discussed the struggles of running a salon and spa, and how beauty business owners can rise above it. In another, Psalmuel Josephs of 25Pskyn broke down how to scale from a solo team to running a team.
But the biggest thread is that everyone is still learning. Whether they’ve been in the business for 3 years or 13, they’re constantly evolving. And that kind of vulnerability and growth mindset has been the most beautiful surprise of all.
What do you hope salon and spa owners take away from each episode?
I hope they walk away feeling two things: seen and equipped.
Seen, because so many of them are doing incredible work behind the scenes, but no one is spotlighting that effort. There’s something powerful about hearing someone who sounds like you, who’s in your industry, talking about the exact challenges you’re facing. It creates a sense of belonging. Like, “Oh, it’s not just me.”
And equipped, because we always try to leave listeners with something tangible. Whether it’s a new way to handle staff scheduling, tips for improving retention, or even just a mindset shift around pricing, every episode is packed with insights you can apply right away.
So if someone listens while locking up the salon or doing a stocktake, and they walk away thinking, “That was helpful. I feel less alone. I’m going to try that tomorrow,” then we would have done our job.
What’s your vision for the podcast?
I want the Beyond Beauty Podcast to become a trusted companion for beauty professionals in Nigeria and across Africa, not just something they listen to, but something they feel a part of.
We already do a lot of this through Splice, from our community events and the report to online resources and ongoing support, and the podcast is a natural extension of that work. It’s one more way we’re building something deeper for the people behind this industry.
At its core, this podcast is about community, about making sure the people behind this industry are being heard, supported, and celebrated. If this podcast helps even one salon owner feel more confident, make a smarter decision, or feel inspired to keep going, then that’s everything to me.
What’s your long-term vision for Splice, and how do you see the platform evolving in the next five years?
Our vision is to become the go-to platform for beauty and wellness businesses across Africa. In the next five years, we aim to expand our features, integrate more AI-driven insights, for example, embed financial services, and grow our user base across the continent.
Ultimately, we want Splice to be a partner in helping beauty owners and professionals achieve their business goals.
Are there plans to expand Splice beyond the beauty and wellness sector or into new markets outside Africa?
For now, we are focused on the beauty and wellness industry; there’s a lot of opportunity and work to do here. However, as we grow and expand, we’ll certainly explore new markets outside Africa and possibly other industries.
We’re just getting started.
Listen to the Beyond Beauty Podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you podcasts.
