About
Founded in Brisbane to close
the gap between a demo
and a working business.
Data & Knowledge Enterprise is a data and AI consulting company. We started in December 2019 and have spent the years since on the same problem: Australian organisations that want AI but cannot get past the proof of concept.
Our story
DKE was founded by Dr Roozbeh Derakhshan, who has spent a career across Accenture, SAP and IBM, and at ETH Zurich and the University of Queensland, moving real time data processing from research into products people use.
Two years ago we began working with ARM Hub, and together we won an AI Adopt Centre under the federal programme that helps Australian small and medium businesses adopt data and AI. That put us in the room with more than 300 companies, from ten staff to a few hundred, mostly manufacturers along with advanced health manufacturers.
The pattern was almost identical every time. A light IT footprint, no clear owner for data, and information spread across ten to thirty separate tools. People wanted AI and had no idea where to start. Our service lines came directly out of those conversations: fix the data foundation, then build the solution on top of it, in weeks, with the client in the room.
Nirman Sarkar joined as co-founder to build the stage after that. Aether as a product in its own right, and the partnerships that bring in specialist skills we do not need to carry full time. Today we work with SME and enterprise clients on the problems that have no off-the-shelf answer, through an operating model that has kept changing as fast as the technology has.
What we believe
- We are not another tool to buy. We work inside your team for the length of the project, then step back out. You are hiring people, not a subscription.
- Honesty over hype. If AI is the wrong answer, we say so, in the first conversation, before there is an invoice at stake.
- Built for you, not for five thousand people at once. Personalised does not have to mean slow.
- Capability, not dependency. Success is the client running it without us.
- Australian data stays in Australia. No exceptions.
Who you will work with
Senior people lead every engagement, out of Brisbane.
Dr Roozbeh Derakhshan
Founder
Previously Accenture, SAP and IBM, with research roles at ETH Zurich and the University of Queensland. Works on real time data processing and on getting research grade ideas into production systems.
Nirman Sarkar
Co-founder
Years in data and analytics across the mining and manufacturing value chain, where the lesson was that the gap is rarely the technology. It is getting it into the hands of the people doing the work. Leads the Aether product suite, and through the ARM Hub AI Adopt Centre helps Australian SMEs plan their first serious steps with AI.
Our leadership and client-facing team is in Brisbane. Some of our delivery engineers sit offshore. They work in your environment under the same access controls as everyone else, and client data stays in Australian cloud regions regardless of who is working on it. If your procurement rules require an onshore-only delivery team, tell us early and we will scope it that way.
The team
The people behind the work.
Engineering, data, product and design. The same people build the Aether platform and deliver client engagements, so a configured product and a custom build come from one team rather than two. We run a blended model: senior client-facing, architecture and product work onshore in Brisbane, with delivery capacity offshore. That is what keeps the cost workable for an SME without the quality dropping.
- Dr Leo RezaeianSenior Advisor, Global Strategy and Growth
- Sairaam VaradarajanAI Manager
- Yuvaraj RathinamProduct Manager
- Ian ZhaoCloud Architect
- Charlotte BirkinshawSoftware and AI Engineer
- Ambareesha VittalSoftware and AI Engineer
- Sai Dheeraj KonetiAI Software Engineer
- Akul AmeyaAI Engineer
- Adhish Manu ValsalakumarCloud and Data Engineer
- Amirebrahim RezaeianData Scientist
- Hima VamsiDeveloper
- Daljeet SinghHead of Design
- Dinesh SubramaniSenior Product Designer
- RithubharathanProduct Designer
- BishwaGraphic Designer
- AkhilGraphic Designer
Partnerships
Who we work with.
ARM Hub AI Adopt Centre
A delivery partner for the federally funded programme helping Australian manufacturers adopt data and AI. This is where most of our SME work has come from.
Databricks and Microsoft Azure
The lakehouse and cloud foundation under our Data as a Service offering, deployed in Australian regions.
MTPConnect and BASA
The Biomedical AI Sprints Accelerator, run with ARM Hub, through which we have worked with life sciences companies including Cortical Dynamics.
Want to talk to the people who would do the work?
That is who answers the first call. No account managers in the middle.