South African-born tech entrepreneur, Priven Reddy, is the mastermind behind the all-new and still-in-development Ararkis Sandstorm.
Once it rolls off the production line, the Sandstorm will boast a triple-digit acceleration time of just 1.5 seconds.
This, said Reddy, will make it the “world’s fastest 0-100kph production car.”
The Sandstorm will be limited to just 20 units for the entire globe, and prospective owners are to be decided by the company and invited to buy it.
The completely unknown supercar won’t come cheap, either. It asks a minimum of $2 million, which equates to just over R36 million at current exchange rates.
Ararkis is based in London, which is also where its founder currently resides.
But Reddy isn’t originally from the United Kingdom, in fact, he was born right here in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, back in 1982.
Reddy grew up in the modest neighbourhood of Chatsworth, facing economic hardships all throughout his childhood, writes UAE Stories.
He was forced to contribute to his household from a young age, seeing him take odd jobs whenever he could such as collecting and selling used cardboard, working as a car guard, and waiting tables.
These experiences firmly ingrained the value of hard work and perseverance into the young businessman’s psyche.
Reddy wasn’t keen on the idea of spending the rest of his life the same way he had his childhood, so as a young adult, he taught himself web design and immersed himself into the world of technology and the internet.
Showing a knack for his newfound passion, the budding entrepreneur quickly landed freelance jobs and he soon realised there was a significant gap in the market for his developing skillset.
This saw him establish his first business in 2006, Kagiso Interactive, a web and mobile applications development agency.
With Reddy at the helm, Kagiso Interactive quickly grew to one of the top-rated software development companies on the continent, and eventually spread its wings overseas.
Today, it’s active not only in Mzansi, but also in Dubai, India, Taiwan, the UK, and the USA.
Rising above his circumstances
Describing himself as a “serial investor in global tech, aerospace, and automotive enterprises,” Reddy was just getting started when he launched Kagiso Interactive.
In 2010, he decided to pursue a Bachelor of Computer Science with a focus on Augmented Reality, which he received in 2018.
The two years thereafter he also studied blockchain, artificial intelligence, and cryptocurrencies to get a deeper understanding of the industries in which he moves.
Throughout his days studying he would continue running operations at Kagiso whilst also working on other ventures behind the scenes.
Reddy subsequently launched Dryvar and Shypar in 2017, which would offer e-hailing and on-demand courier services to users, respectively.
Come 2019, he founded Dryvar Foods which focused on delivering meals and similar goods from shops and restaurants to customers’ doors.
The next year, he helped establish Engage Beyond in the UAE where he currently presides as CEO.
Engage Beyond is a venture capitalist firm investing in the technology and application development industry within the Dubai, UK, and USA markets.
Delving into yet another industry, Reddy formed EON Aerospace in 2021.
This forward-thinking company is studying supersonic transport with the goal of creating faster and more efficient aircraft that could drastically reduce travel time.
2022 would be even busier for the South African businessman as he started two artificial intelligence-driven companies in the same year.
Piqsol, Reddy’s Non-Fungible Token marketplace, came about in January 2022.
Meanwhile, the content-generation platform VEU.AI was registered in December 2022 with the goal of helping businesses and individuals create engaging marketing and social media content with ease.
Unfortunately, amid fierce competition from the likes of Uber and Mr. Delivery back in South Africa, Reddy also decided to close up shop on his transport service businesses around this time.
He shuttered Dryvar and Shypar in 2022, and Dryvar Foods just over a year later in 2023, and he has remained out of the transport and delivery sectors altogether since then.
Now in 2024, Reddy decided it was time to venture into the cut-throat world of automotive production
Enter: Arakis Automobili, the maker of what will eventually become the world’s fastest 0-100km/h production vehicle.
Despite the mammoth task of setting up a carmaker, Reddy saw it fit to also launch Codeblaze AI in the same year, an autonomous AI-powered coding platform.
The rise to the top wasn’t without its setbacks, though, as by his own admission, Reddy experienced more downs than ups in his life.
He had to walk away from numerous business ventures that fell flat for which he had big hopes.
For instance, he labels Shipper, an on-demand courier company, as his biggest regret both from a financial and psychological standpoint.
Reddy believes the company was ahead of its time and that it tried to establish a non-existent market instead of catering to organically forming demand.
Due to his less affluent background, Reddy contends that he didn’t the enjoy easy access to opportunities that others did, either.
However, the foundation he built during his childhood by taking on the jobs other people wouldn’t meant he stayed resilient and focused on his vision – which he admits was a key ingredient to his success.
Reddy’s long list of entrepreneurial achievements has made him among the wealthiest South African diaspora in the world today.
His net worth has been estimated to sit in the region of a whopping R4.5 billion, placing him 29th on the list of the richest people from the Rainbow Nation.
Loading ...
