Startup Story

As 4IR becomes the key talking point for business, ushering in the second wave of the internet, South African entrepreneur Darshani Persadh, co-founder of Darjyo (Pty) Ltd is bridging the gap between ideas and reality.

LoA learned more about this fast moving company from co-founder Darshani this month.

What does your company do?

DARJYO is a Research & Development innovation technology company with a key focus to power today’s jobs; cloud computing, artificial intelligence, data and analytics, the Internet of things, blockchain, and security.

“DARJYO is a women-led startup founded to inspire and empower you to accelerate innovation, scale effortlessly, and create new possibilities for tomorrow.”

What inspired you to start your company?

Benjamin Franklin once said, “An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.”

Up until 2018, I played it safe, then my life changed the Christmas week of 2018, wheb doctors told me that I could have lost my right eye. During my recovery I gained insight, and in 2019 I saw my life in a whole new light and started making decisions that make me happy. To-date I have no regrets. I co-founded my startup last year. I balanced work during the day, and tried to make it work during the night - it didn’t work out well, then I took THAT risk. I left my job at the end of November last year, and let’s just say that even though it was a reckless decision, it was also a “if not now, then when, if at all,” a question every women asks herself at some point in her life. DARJYO is a women-led startup founded to inspire and empower you to accelerate innovation, scale effortlessly, and create new possibilities for tomorrow.

Why should anyone use your service or product?

The buzzword is 4IR, the second wave of the internet, a mesh of the virtual, social and physical worlds, it’s a blurred line between the biological and the digital, between ideas and reality. With the rest of the world migrating to a digital platform, are you catching up and ready for what’s to come? There are a wide variety of jobs that require technological skills: Building apps. Social media marketing. Digital transformation, at its core, is about helping our businesses spark new growth; relevance; and viability into the future. Skilled humans fuel the global economy. Skills availability and quality are in jeopardy. To allow for opportunities and innovation to flourish, skills need to match labour demand. Intelligent automation will bring multiple benefits, but hiring alone is not a sustainable solution, existing workers may require retraining/upskilling. DARJYO can help build and maintain a skilled workforce. DARJYO wants to help businesses keep up with the rapidly changing landscape of technology.

“DARJYO has a plan for the impact of technology and the fast-changing advanced business environment, by sharing our expertise, on development and opportunities available for emerging technology, and what it will take to succeed.”

Tell us a little about your team

DARJYO right now is a 2 woman led operation, the scale of a startup with the speed of an enterprise, we are professional development assessors, with 10 year tertiary level teaching experience. One is a Creative, the other an Engineer, we chose to come together and combine our strengths and achieve success by identifying new ways to leverage technology and information to create a unique and sustainable advantage and business model.

Share a little about your entrepreneurial journey. And, do you come from an entrepreneurial background?

With no particular career trajectory in mind, I studied Software Engineering, steered onto a different path which catapulted me forward to realize that I am a "creative engineer" who wished to share my wisdom and articulate my vision to others. As a Qualifications Assessor, I thrived when championing another’s cause. In the classroom I was to be able to nurture minds, train creativity and take dreams to the next level. Creativity enhances life. It enables great thinkers, artists, to continually push forward new concepts, new forms of expression and new ways to improve every facet of existence. Ambitious and creative minds have revolutionized our world, and our perceptions of our universe. The design and technology industry, in particular, continuously changes massively.

What are your future plans and aspirations for your company?

We want to help modernize the workplace to foster creativity, productivity, and innovation so businesses can achieve more. We want to help companies to implement modern digital solutions. DARJYO has a plan for the impact of technology and the fast-changing advanced business environment, by sharing our expertise, on development and opportunities available for emerging technology, and what it will take to succeed. We are committed to providing guidance, resources, and tools to uncover new growth opportunities.

“At DARJYO we want to help modernize the workplace to foster creativity, productivity, and innovation so businesses can achieve more. We want to help companies to implement modern digital solutions.”

What gives you the most satisfaction being an entrepreneur?

Creativity lurks in the vision of a slightly skewed perspective. I am an entrepreneurial spirit, I am constantly thinking about how to create value, and I want to find innovative ways to improve and transform the ordinary into visionaries, game changers, and challengers striving to defy the norm in order to design tomorrow’s enterprises. Innovation inspires solutions to challenges affecting people around the world.

What's the biggest piece of advice you can give to other women looking to start-up?

I laid out a roadmap that made me visualize how I want to make this journey. I place a high value on every piece of feedback and insight that it provided me with along the way. During every stage in our life, we always search for someone/something to guide us, motivate us, choosing to invest in me, was my voice saying, if you need something to believe in, start with yourself.

Contact or follow DARJYO

Why LoA loves it….

The world needs innovators right now, and particularly those with entrepreneurial minds that can take those innovative ideas and turn them into reality. Darshani and her co-founder at DARJYO are focused on powering new ways of thinking, of doing, and creating, and their business stands poised to help other businesses to do the same. At a time when we need to think out-of-the-box and respond to the challenges we face in today’s world, we need innovators like Darshani to help find the solutions. — Melanie Hawken, founder & ceo of Lionesses of Africa