Splice tackles Nigeria’s beauty industry fragmentation with homegrown solutions

Splice, founded by ex-Piggyvest exec, Layo Ogunbanwo is using tech to tackle fragmentation in Nigeria's $10B revenue beauty industry.
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7 minute read
Splice tackles Nigeria’s beauty industry fragmentation with homegrown solutions
Photo: Layo Ogunbanwo, Splice Founder and CEO

For years, salons and spas in Nigeria have struggled with decentralised management systems that forced them to rely on different tools for booking appointments, handling payments, and managing client records. 

This fragmented approach not only complicates daily operations but also results in inefficiencies and increased costs. Where integrated software solutions existed, they were often designed for other regions, making them unsuitable for the unique demands of the African beauty market.

While this challenge has persisted for a long time, it wasn’t until 2020, during the COVID-19 lockdown, that it truly hit home Layo Ogunbanwo, Founder and CEO of Splice. While helping her friend, a salon owner in Lagos, streamline her operations during the pandemic, Layo realised that basic tasks like managing appointments and tracking client preferences were far more complicated than they needed to be. The absence of a centralised, intuitive tool highlighted a significant gap in the market.

Curious to see if this was an isolated issue, Layo, was then the VP of Product Strategy at Nigeria’s largest savings and investment platform Piggyvest began interviewing other beauty and wellness business owners across Nigeria. It didn’t take long for her to discover a widespread demand for a comprehensive, easy-to-use system tailored to the industry’s unique challenges. 

Splice at Beauty Connect Africa 2024

Armed with insights from her friend’s salon and conversations with other beauty and wellness professionals, Layo set out to build Splice — an all-in-one booking, payment and business management software for beauty and wellness businesses in Africa, starting with Nigeria. 

Now, not only was Layo driven by a passion for solving complex problems, but she was also drawing from her more than 13 years of experience leading product strategy, marketing, and growth in different companies across global markets, including Africa, Latin America, and the United States. 

Before building Splice, Layo was a VP at PiggyVest, where she helped shape Nigerian-born savings and investment platforms into the most desirable financial tool in the country. She had also worked as a Product Lead at Brazilian challenger bank Nubank, the largest digital bank in the world by valuation, and held leadership roles at Axxess, a leading healthcare software provider in the United States. These experiences provided her with a unique perspective on leveraging technology to solve complex problems.


See also: Nubank’s $150 million investment in SA’s Tyme Bank


Beyond her professional achievements, Layo is a champion for women’s empowerment. As a founding member of the Feminist Coalition, she actively advocates for gender equality in Nigeria. She also mentors startups through the Google for Startups Africa Accelerator program, helping new businesses thrive.

Layo firmly believes that the best products address real problems and they are built with the user in mind at every step. This simple yet profound philosophy has shaped her remarkable career, helping her build and scale successful products worldwide. It’s the same gilding principle that has positioned Splice as the go-to management tool for salons and spas in Nigeria.

In August 2023, Splice’s parent company, WithSplice, rolled out the platform’s first version. Rather than rushing to market, Layo and her team engaged in a rigorous beta testing phase, working closely with beauty business owners to refine the software. 

“We spent months working closely with beauty business owners to understand their pain points and make Splice a tool that truly worked for them,” she explained.

Layo Ogunbanwo
Layo Ogunbanwo, Founder and CEO, Splice

This hands-on approach ensured Splice evolved into a powerful solution that streamlines business processes, drives customer retention, and boosts revenue.

“Splice wasn’t about creating software for software’s sake,” she recalls. “It was about making life easier for salon and spa professionals, ensuring that the management problems they had prior no longer exist with Splice in the picture.”

On Monday, September 9, 2024, Splice was unveiled at Beauty Connect Africa 2024, a landmark event in partnership with L’Oréal, Sterling Bank, The Business Hub, and Beauty Hut. This maiden gathering brought together 150 beauty and wellness professionals eager to network, gain insights, and explore avenues for growth. The event provided an ideal stage for Splice to demonstrate its potential to transform the beauty and wellness sector.

By October 2024, after more than a year of testing and refinement, Splice officially launched to the public, offering features such as:

  • Online booking: Simplifying appointment management.
  • Payments processing: Enabling seamless and secure payment at the point of booking via multiple channels, including card payments and instant transfers.
  • Inventory: Tracking and managing product levels. 
  • Automated reminders: Automating reminders and client communications via SMS and email.
  • Powerful Calendar: Designed to maximise business availability.
  • Client Relationship Management (CRM): Robust client profiles, insights and preferences.
  • Staff scheduling: Ensuring team’s operational efficiency.
  • Reporting & insights: Offering data-driven decision-making tools.
  • Promotions and loyalty programs: In-built loyalty programs. Helping businesses reward and retain customers.

With Splice out in the market, solving pressing challenges for business owners, Layo it was time to release the 2024 Beyond Beauty Report, as empowering the beauty industry required more than just tools — it demanded insights.

Attendees listening to the demo of Splice at Beauty Connect Africa 2024
Splice demoed at Beauty Connect Africa 2024

Insights from the Beyond Beauty Report by Splice

To further support Splice’s mission, the team released the 2024 Beyond Beauty Report, a comprehensive study of what drives customer engagement and loyalty in Nigeria’s beauty and wellness industry. Why was this necessary? 

While the team was still testing out Splice privately with select businesses, Layo discovered that the Nigerian beauty market was projected to reach $9.72 billion (₦15.5 trillion) in revenue by 2024, up from the $4.6 billion (₦1.6 trillion) in 2018. What’s more, the upward trend was expected to continue for the next five years, despite economic challenges. 

However, Layo realised that while the Splice tool would go a long way to helping businesses, many Nigerian salons and spas risk losing out without adequate customer insights. To help them make the most of this growth opportunity, the Splice team surveyed 500 Nigerian beauty customers, unveiling several key insights, including the two major drivers of repeat patronage. The result is a report titled Beyond Beauty: Understanding Your Customers. 

The report revealed two major drivers of repeat patronage: loyalty programs and high-quality service. While 67.4% of customers prefer businesses that reward their patronage, 70% ranked service quality as their top priority, ahead of professionalism, cleanliness, and staff friendliness. Splice directly addresses these needs through its features like automated loyalty programs and tools to maintain exceptional service standards.

“Customer satisfaction isn’t just a metric; it’s the foundation for sustained growth,” says Layo. “The report offers insights into the minds and preferences of customers and gives beauty businesses actionable tips for growth and increased customer satisfaction.” (Get your copy of the report here.

This is just the beginning

From helping her friend optimise her business processes nearly five years ago to taking on the challenge to create a solution to empower beauty professionals in Africa to take control of their management system, Layo Ogunbanwo’s vision for Splice has become a reality. 

With its official launch and growing adoption among salons and spas, Splice is already reshaping beauty and wellness management in Nigeria. By addressing local challenges with efficient local solutions, the software is helping beauty and wellness service providers operate more efficiently, deliver better customer experiences, and boost revenue. Currently, Splice serves over 100 businesses managing more than 30,000 clients.

Looking ahead, Layo sees Splice expanding across Africa. “This is just the beginning,” she says. “We’re not just building software; we’re partnering with beauty professionals in Nigeria to help them grow and thrive. Soon, we’ll take it to the rest of Africa.”