About Us
A Story of Reinvention, Purpose, and People-Centred Design
Where We Began
GrabAGrad was born in 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, a time when even the most qualified young people struggled to find meaningful work. Originally founded by three recent University of Cape Town graduates, the idea came from lived experience: rejection letters, systemic barriers, and a gap between academic credentials and real-world readiness.
Devlin Sooful searched for work for nearly a year. Thando Shabalala entered the highly competitive freelance space. Aleya Ramparsad Banwari, the only one employed at the time, was laid off due to pandemic-related cutbacks.
Together, they realised that the problem wasn’t just a lack of jobs, it was a lack of accessible platforms for practical experience, innovation, and purpose-driven work.
How We Grew
GrabAGrad started as a digital consultancy pairing unemployed graduates with client projects. It offered training in automation, branding, and digital tools while delivering services to companies across South Africa. Over two years, the initiative upskilled over 85 young people and delivered 30+ client solutions.
But as time went on, the nature of requests began to change. The team started hearing from community organisations, advocacy groups, youth-led collectives, and solo founders – all eager for help building impact-driven strategy, digital tools, and visual content.
That’s when Aleya Ramparsad Banwari, one of the original co-founders, reimagined GrabAGrad as a solo innovation studio – one focused on co-creating with changemakers rather than just training graduates.
Where We Are Now
Today, GrabAGrad Innovation Studio is a nimble, solo-run consultancy helping under-resourced teams turn big ideas into beautiful, practical outcomes. From design thinking sprints and low-code tools to pitch decks, reports, and onboarding workflows – we build things that matter, and that can be owned by the communities who use them.
We’ve moved beyond training graduates to building a more inclusive innovation ecosystem, especially for those working on the frontlines of social change in the Global South.
Our Philosophy
At its core, GrabAGrad is still powered by the same question we asked at the start:
What if the people closest to the problem could design the solution?
We’ve just shifted from skills-building for graduates to capacity-building with changemakers.
GrabAGrad was featured in an article by Yiba, an online news site that covers stories about developments in South African higher education.
Yiba’s article sheds light on how GrabAGrad actively helped to tackle the skills shortage in our country.
100 Young Mandelas Award
Our founder, Aleya Ramparsad Banwari, was recognised by News24 as a Young Mandela of the Future in 2023.
News24’s annual “Young Mandelas of the Future” initiative honours a generation of dynamic young South Africans actively shaping a brighter future for our country. This group of 100 exceptional trailblazers has demonstrated remarkable talent, shown intense passion, and committed themselves to fostering positive change in our nation.
Aleya was recognised in the Innovation category, which celebrates young individuals taking steps to create and develop impactful offerings such as products, services, processes, technologies, and business opportunities.
Our Values
Access over aesthetic: Beautiful design means nothing if it’s inaccessible
Build what matters: We focus on impact over hype
Design with, not for: Communities should lead, not be “consulted”
Small but powerful: We do more with less — intentionally
Ubuntu meets UX: African ways of knowing are the foundation of our work