Oyin Adebayo

Adebayo began hairdressing at the age of 14. As clients began asking her for advice not only on hair but also on careers and entrepreneurship, she started hosting events to support budding entrepreneurs; by 2019 her event in Birmingham was attracting more than 700 attendees.⁠[1][1][1]

She holds a BA in Economics and Management from Nottingham Business School and an MSc in Development Economics.⁠[2]

She started her business as a side hustle while working at Rolls-Royce and studying; she has said that at the time she was managing more than 17 digital transformation projects and travelling across Scandinavian countries, and braiding hair for up to seven hours after work and at weekends.⁠[3][3]

In 2020, NIYO Enterprise and Coding Black Females set up a boot camp in the West Midlands to train Black women as software developers, funded with £250,000 from the West Midlands Combined Authority Digital Retraining Fund. The free, six-month, part-time course was originally intended for 40 women but was expanded to 50 after more than 300 applied.⁠[4][4][4]

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Niyo pivoted to upskilling mobile stylists across the country, launching tech and beauty courses alongside coding boot camps.⁠[1]

As of 2022, her company Niyo Enterprise operated two brands: Niyo Network, which trained Black women who were unemployed or at risk of unemployment through technology boot camps and had a community of more than 3,000 women; and Niyo Hair and Beauty, a hair and beauty platform combining augmented reality and artificial intelligence. The team then had 13 staff.⁠[5][5][5][5]

By March 2023, Adebayo had opened an office in Digbeth, Birmingham, fulfilling a goal she had set herself when younger; Niyo Network, the not-for-profit part of the business, offered free boot camps and fast-track courses in coding, software development, and augmented reality.⁠[6][6]

That month, Niyo had grown from a side hustle earning £200 a week into a seven-figure business, with turnover of £1.4 million in its latest year. She said her biggest early difficulties were access to capital and explaining her vision to people who saw her as young and inexperienced.⁠[3][3]

On June 25, 2024, Niyo received strategic investment from the Sumerian Foundation to scale its AI learning platform, with the aim of empowering one million people.⁠[7]

From October 3 to 5, 2024, the Niyo group held Niyo Fest, a technology and culture festival in Birmingham expected to draw 10,000 attendees, most of them women from underrepresented backgrounds. By then Niyo had trained more than 650 Black women as full-stack developers and data engineers, some of whom went on to work at firms including KPMG, Goldman SachsGoldman SachsGoldman Sachs is an American financial services group headquartered in New York whose businesses include investment banking, securities trading, asset management, and wealth management. It traces its origins to the commercial paper business Marcus Goldman founded in 1869; it listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1999 under the ticker GS and became a bank holding company in 2008. David Solomon serves as chairman and chief executive officer.Open the full entry, and Accenture.⁠[8][9][8][8]

In the same year Niyo introduced an AI-powered salon designed for women with textured hair. Adebayo has said the tech industry is severely underfunded for people of colour, and even more so for Black people.⁠[1][1]

On March 10, 2026, The Venture Room released a street-interview video filmed in Knightsbridge, London, in which Adebayo was one of the interviewees. She said she runs an education business and a beauty business, and said in the interview that the most she had made in a year was about 2 million.⁠[10][10]

Asked how she would make her first million if she started again, she said she would sell concierge packages, including beauty and wellness services and relocation, to high-net-worth individuals, especially African high-net-worth individuals.⁠[10]

As of October 2026, Adebayo was Niyo’s founder and chief executive, leading its vision, partnerships, and growth. Niyo’s programmes run on its AI learning platform, Niyo Learn, and include She Builds, a 12-week AI accelerator for women with 100 places fully funded by Innovate UK and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.⁠[7][7][7]

“In a world where AI is automating everything, build a system that brings a lot of trades together.” She argued that plumbers and electricians are very hard to automate, and suggested first contacting local tradespeople, then commercial properties that need their services, and looking for long-term contracts through public tenders. (at 10:30 in the video)⁠[10][10][10]

“Rich people understand leverage; they know how to leverage what they have.” She added that the wealthy know how to get out of difficult situations quickly, while what often keeps people poor is staying stuck in a situation for too long without the agility to get out. (at 11:19 in the video)⁠[10][10]

Niyo: Official website: https://www.niyo.co/ (opens in a new window).⁠[7]

Personal website: https://oyinadebayo.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[11]

X: Public account: https://x.com/oyinadebayo_ (opens in a new window)⁠[11]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oyinkansola-adebayo (opens in a new window)⁠[11]