Darlene was born on the 26th of October. Darlene is a technology innovator and serial entrepreneur. She founded her first software company in 2004. Darlene has firsthand experience in what it takes to start and grow a business. She understands the difficulties entrepreneurs encounter in trying to raise finance and the enormous challenges they have to overcome to establish a successful enterprise. Over the past ten years Darlene has used this experience to develop practical, easy-to-use software tools for small businesses.
She is the vice-chairperson of the Durban Chamber of Commerce and works across business, government and civil society sectors nationally.
Here are some of her Honors & Awards:
2013 World Summit Country Winner (eCommerce and Business)
2012 Women in IT Award (Black IT Forum)
2011 South Africa ICT Person of the Year - Top 5 Finalist
2011 ICT Person of the Year (KZN)
2011 Technology Women in Business Finalist (South Africa)
2010 Innovation Entrepreneur of the Year (South Africa)
2009 Nokia Global Judges Choice Award (Top 10 from 85 Countries and 1700 Systems)
She has also been recognised by Swiss-based STARS Group as a future Global Leader.
Darlene has been recognised internationally by Microsoft, Voices for Innovation and the Trestle Group as a pioneering business leader and social entrepreneur.
Her work:
After 15 years in the corporate world, Darlene Menzies took time out to pursue her own dreams. Spotting a gap in the market for customised, web-based and mobile solutions, she launched The Development House (TDH) and began working with SMEs, non-profit organisations and government to develop IT systems specifically tailored for their needs.
The Development House created SMEasy; a unique Accounting and Business Management solution for the SMME market. SMEasy is specifically designed for people who don’t understand accounting. SMEasy won the World Summit Awards for Best Business and e-Commerce Product in the 2013 . Darlene was successful in raising significant investment for SMEasy from venture capital funders that include 4Di Capital, a Reinet Group and Oppenheimer Sons subsidiary.
She also created Finfind; a one-stop solution for access to finance for small business. Finfind is available via both on the web and mobile. Finfind brings together the providers and seekers of SMME finance with a focus on readying small businesses to access finance. Finfind is the result of a five year research initiative by USAID aimed at addressing the challenge of small business failure.
Darlene is also a radio spokesperson who comments on the SME sector. She is quoted in the national press on matters of entrepreneurship and small business development.
Why we love Her:
Darlene is described by industry colleagues as a conscientious capitalist who believes that business should play a leading role in the fight against poverty in South Africa. She works alongside Government, Business and Civil Society to address youth unemployment and to develop small businesses. Her life motto is “to live an extraordinary life you must resist an ordinary approach”.
At TechHer, we believe that one can be anything they want to be if you put your mind to it. Darlene has absolutely won our hearts.
Sheila Birgen holds a BA in Public Relations from Daystar University. In 2014, she obtained a certificate in Executive Education Programme and Investing in early-stage growth companies from Graduate school of Business; University of Cape town.
In 2016, she attended the Arizona state university community partnership for social action research where she was certified in empowerment for peace through leadership in Agribusiness and sustainability.
Sheila has held several positions in different organizations listed as follows:
In 2011, she was a Public Relations Assistant at Square gold PR & marketing firm.
Between March 2012- August 2013, she was the Communication & outreach lead at M: Lead Africa.
Between September 2013- March 2014, she became the community lead at M: Lead Africa where she progressed to become the lead in March 2015.
In April 2016, she became the Head of Community at iHub Nairobi.
Her work:
Sheila Birgen is the CEO and Team lead of M: Lab East Africa. M: Lab East Africa is a consortium of four organizations that aim to become the leaders in identifying, nurturing and helping to build sustainable enterprises in the knowledge economy. These organizations are eMobilis, World Wide Web Foundation, University of Nairobi and iHub.
Sheila became a part of M: Lab team because she is passionate about technology and entrepreneurship. In her words, ‘You can’t get any faster than technology’.
Sheila receives support from Africa’s premier mobile start up pitching competition. The support gives her clients a platform to connect with the entrepreneurs in the sub region.
The M: Lab team also organizes sector-specific forums on how to best utilize technology. These forums offer opportunities for developers to tap into on-the-ground challenges in the markets in which they hope to operate.
She has also partnered with Microsoft and Intel on capacity development for developers. These kind of partnership ensures the growth of game developers. It also helps to bring more developers into the market.
Her work with M: Lab has impacted a great deal to different sectors in Nairobi. Here are a few of them:
In Education, Eneza now has over 50,000 users.
In Finance, Kopo Kopo has created jobs in Kenya and has over 40 employees. Kopo Kopo is a company that helps small businesses to use mobile money for their businesses.
In Health, ToTo Health is helping over 30,000 mothers monitor their maternal health and Childs development. Toto health uses SMS technology to help reduce maternal and child mortality.
In Agric, Mfarm is multiplying sales of farmers and increasing income for their families. Mfarm provides up-to-date market prices via an app or SMS direct to farmers ensuring there is Price transparency.
She also provides a platform for a market driven training on different platforms, business incubation and testing lab for apps.
Why TechHer loves her:
Sheila collaborates with partners such as Akirachix to offer internship opportunities to women training from high school. These internship opportunities will lead to an increase in the number of women who apply to Pivot East. Pivot east is East Africa’s premier mobile start ups pitching competition. It is also an M: Lab East initiative.
She is currently seeking for partnership both in the public and non-profit sector because technology offers solutions for many of the challenges they face.
At TechHer, we appreciate women like Sheila who does not let the circumstances in Africa limit them. She consistently thinks of ways to use technology to make a difference. This alone is worth celebrating.
