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Onaru

Building CompaniesThat Shape Africa'sFuture.

ONARU Limited is a venture holding company creating technology, media, education and creative businesses that solve real problems at scale.

Abayomi Onalaru, Founder and CEO of ONARU Limited

Abayomi Onalaru

Founder & CEO

Meet The Founder

Abayomi Onalaru

CEO & Founder

Abayomi began behind a camera. Years of photographing people, brands and spaces taught him something most business schools never do — that value is created in the details, and that the person who controls the system controls the outcome.

Freelancing had a ceiling. Every project ended, every invoice closed, and the work started again from zero. So he stopped selling hours and started building infrastructure: tools, studios, platforms and academies that keep working after the day ends.

That shift became ONARU — a holding company built to spin up businesses that solve problems he has personally lived through. Operations software for African businesses. Creative spaces for people who cannot afford a studio of their own. Education for the next generation of operators. Media that tells the story properly.

The through-line is empowerment. African creators do not lack talent; they lack leverage. ONARU exists to hand them the machinery — and to keep building it for the next thirty years, not the next funding cycle.

Abayomi Onalaru

Lagos, Nigeria

The Model

We build. We operate. We create.

ONARU is not only a creative agency. We build and run our own companies — and we put the same capability to work for a small number of external partners.

01 — ONARU Companies

Businesses and products we build and operate.

  • TRYSATechnology
  • YOMI VISUALSCreative
  • YV STUDIOS AFRICAStudios
  • YV ENTERTAINMENTEntertainment
  • PLAYBAAQMusic
  • YOFABakery
Our companies →

02 — ONARU Studio

Capabilities we provide to external companies and clients.

  • Brand & Strategy

    Positioning, naming, identity systems and the strategy that decides what gets built.

  • Creative & Production

    Photography, film, art direction and content produced end-to-end in our own studios.

  • Digital Products

    Websites, platforms and product design built for performance and longevity.

  • Marketing & Growth

    Advertising, campaigns, funnels and the measurement that keeps them honest.

  • Business Technology

    Automation, internal systems and the operational tooling that lets a business scale.

Start a project →

01 — ONARU Companies

The ONARU Ecosystem.

We build brands, products and experiences designed for modern life.

YOMI VISUALS
02

YOMI VISUALS

Creative

Imagery made to last.

A creative production company specializing in photography, videography and visual storytelling.

PhotographyVideographyCommercial CampaignsWeddings & Events
Creative Production & PhotographyVisit yomivisuals.com →
YV STUDIOS AFRICA logo
03

YV STUDIOS AFRICA

Studios

Space to make the work.

Premium creative spaces and production environments for photographers, filmmakers, creators, brands, artists and production teams.

Photography SpacesVideo ProductionCampaignsContent Creation
Creative Studios & Production SpacesExplore YV Studios Africa →
YV ENTERTAINMENT
04

YV ENTERTAINMENT

Entertainment

Stories, artists and culture.

ONARU's entertainment and media company, developing artists and producing creative projects.

Artist DevelopmentCreative ProjectsVisual ContentExperiences
Entertainment & Creative MediaExplore YV Entertainment →
PLAYBAAQ logo
05

PLAYBAAQ

Music

Built for artists.

A technology-driven platform supporting artists and music creators across the music ecosystem.

Artist ServicesMusic ReleasesDistributionContent
Music & Artist PlatformExplore Playbaaq →
View all companiesSix companies. One operating thesis.

About ONARU

Why a holding company, and why now.

The Beginning

2016 — 2020

A camera and a question

Years of client work across brands, weddings and campaigns exposed the same gap everywhere: talent was abundant, systems were not. Businesses ran on WhatsApp threads and memory.

Today

2021 — 2026

From services to structures

ONARU was formed to hold and build the answers — software, studios, education, media and consumer brands, each staffed by small teams and connected by shared infrastructure.

The Future

2027 →

A continental operating layer

The ambition is a group of durable African companies that outlive their founders: profitable, well-governed, and useful to millions of people who create and trade every day.

Philosophy

Five rules we refuse to break.

01

We don't chase trends.

Hype is a poor substitute for demand. We build for problems that will still exist in ten years.

02

We build systems.

A system compounds while you sleep. A service stops the moment you do.

03

We solve meaningful problems.

If removing the product wouldn't hurt anyone, it wasn't worth building.

04

We think in decades.

Every decision is measured against where the company should be in 2040.

05

We create impact before profit.

Margin follows usefulness. We earn the right to charge by being genuinely needed.

Impact

Measured in what we leave behind.

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Companies Built

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Creators Empowered

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Countries Reached

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Projects Completed

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Years Building

Vision

Our ambition is simple.

Build companies that improve how Africa creates, works and grows.

Contact

Let's start a conversation.

Email
hello@onaru.com
LinkedIn
/company/onaru
Instagram
@onaru
Office
Lagos, Nigeria