Digital
Illustrake builds Zappfresh’s digital backbone for scalable growth
MUMBAI: Illustrake has teamed up with fresh meat and seafood brand Zappfresh to build a full-fledged digital and delivery technology platform, giving the D2C player a stronger engine for its next phase of growth.
As Zappfresh expands across India, the brand faced a familiar challenge in a fast-moving category. Orders come thick and fast, operations are complex, and customer expectations leave little room for error. To keep pace, Zappfresh needed more than patchwork tools. It needed a single, well-oiled digital ecosystem.
Enter Illustrake.
Working as Zappfresh’s technology and product partner, Illustrake designed and developed the entire digital setup from scratch. This included the consumer mobile app, website, internal CRM and a dedicated delivery partner app, each tailored to its users with clear, intuitive interfaces.
Behind the screens, the platforms were built to handle real-time inventory tracking, smooth order management, delivery coordination and a shared pool of customer data. The CRM acts as the system’s brain, bringing together order flows, customer insights and marketing automation under one roof.
On the ground, the delivery partner app helps streamline last-mile fulfilment with real-time task allocation, route visibility and live order updates. The result is fewer bottlenecks, faster deliveries and better control across operations.
By tightly connecting customer-facing platforms with backend and delivery systems, Zappfresh now operates with greater speed and flexibility, while keeping the customer experience consistent.
Commenting on the partnership, Zappfresh founder Deepanshu Manchanda said, “Illustrake showed a strong understanding of what it takes to build technology for scale. Their work across our digital and delivery platforms has supported our growth journey and gives us a solid base for future expansion.”
Illustrake Digital Marketing Services co-founder Mihir Gadhvi added, “Our focus is on creating technology that links customer experience, operations and last-mile delivery seamlessly. Zappfresh operates in a high-frequency, complex category, and this project reflects our ability to build integrated platforms designed for speed, control and long-term growth.”
The collaboration reflects a wider trend among D2C brands, which are increasingly investing in custom-built, connected technology to stay competitive in demanding and operationally intense markets.
Digital
Ethical AI must benefit society, not dominate it, says WFEB chief Sanjay Pradhan at IAA event
At Mumbai event, ethics expert urges businesses and governments to shape AI responsibly
MUMBAI: Artificial intelligence may be racing ahead at lightning speed, but its direction must still be guided by human conscience. That was the central message delivered by Sanjay Pradhan, president of the World Forum for Ethics in Business (WFEB), during the latest edition of IAA Conversations held in Mumbai.
The session was organised by the International Advertising Association (IAA) and the Artificial Intelligence Association of India (AIAI) in association with The Free Press Journal at the Free Press House on 7 March. Addressing a packed audience, Pradhan called for stronger ethical leadership to ensure AI remains a tool that benefits humanity rather than one that governs it.
“Artificial intelligence has rapidly become one of the most powerful technologies humanity has created,” Pradhan said. “It is unlocking breakthroughs in medicine, science and creativity at a pace unimaginable just a few years ago.”
But he warned that the same technology carries serious risks. AI, he noted, can amplify disinformation faster than facts can travel, compromise privacy, deepen discrimination and disrupt millions of livelihoods. Referencing concerns raised by AI pioneers such as Geoffrey Hinton, often called the godfather of AI, Pradhan stressed that the real challenge is not whether AI will shape the world, but whether humans will shape it with ethics and wisdom.
Structuring his talk around four guiding questions, why, what, how and who, Pradhan introduced the audience to WFEB’s emerging AI Ethics Partnership, a global platform aimed at advancing responsible artificial intelligence. He outlined four priority concerns that demand urgent attention: disinformation, bias and discrimination, data privacy and job security.
To make the idea of ethical AI easier to grasp, Pradhan offered a simple metaphor. Ethical AI, he said, is like a three layered cake. The outer layer represents the visible value ethical AI creates for businesses and society. The middle layer is organisational culture that moves ethics from written codes to everyday practice. The innermost layer, however, is the most crucial, the conscience of individual leaders.
Drawing from Indian philosophical thought through WFEB co-founder Ravi Shankar, Pradhan noted that while artificial intelligence can reproduce stored knowledge, true intelligence is boundless and rooted in conscience, creativity and compassion. Practices such as breathwork and meditation, he suggested, can help leaders develop the calm clarity needed for ethical decision making.
The event also featured a discussion with Maninder Adityaraj Singh, chief of staff and head of innovation at Rediffusion Brand Solutions Pvt Ltd, and Yash Johri, lawyer, Supreme Court of India.
Opening the session, IAA India chapter president Abhishek Karnani, highlighted the need for industries to understand and engage with AI responsibly.
“AI has to be befriended and understood,” added Rediffusion managing director and AIAI national convenor Sandeep Goyal. “Its ethical use will determine whether it becomes a friend or a foe.”
As AI continues to reshape industries and societies, Pradhan ended with a simple but powerful call to action. Businesses, governments and individuals must work together to ensure that the algorithms shaping the future reflect human values rather than just cold logic.
