MAM
Palicha-Vohra’s Zepto elevates Shashank Shekhar Sharma as CXO of Zepto Café
MUMBAI: At just 22, Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra are racing past food-tech giants Swiggy and Zomato, proving that speed isn’t just a metric-it’s a revolution. Their Zepto, the lightning-fast disruptor of India’s consumer internet space, where quick bites meet quicker delivery.
In a bold move to elevate its café division, Zepto has elevated Shashank Shekhar Sharma as its new chief experience Officer (CXO). With a mandate as sharp as its delivery timelines, Shashank steps into the driver’s seat to steer Zepto Café toward dominating the hyper-competitive food-tech arena.
Zepto’s co-founder & CEO, Palicha commended Shashank’s exceptional contributions, “Shashank is a top-tier operator. I have had the personal privilege of learning from his combination of detail-oriented execution, strategic clarity, and most importantly, unrelenting obsession with the customer. Zepto Café has been built ground up by him, and I believe he has it in him to build one of the largest food QSR businesses in India.”
Since Zepto Café’s inception, Shashank has been instrumental in shaping its journey. Reflecting on his promotion, he stated, “I am thrilled to take on this responsibility at such a pivotal time for Zepto Café. The online café model represents a paradigm shift in how urban India enjoys food and beverages, combining convenience, speed, and quality. As we introduce new menu items to the selection, we will remain meticulous in curating assortments that meet our high standards of quality consistency and taste. I look forward to working with our talented teams, sellers, and partners to build on this success and continue delighting users with exceptional experiences.”
Shashank’s rich background in food tech, retail, and QSR spans nearly two decades. His proven track record in driving business transformation and scaling operations perfectly aligns with Zepto Café’s ambitious growth trajectory.
Under his leadership, Zepto Café is set to strengthen its footprint and redefine urban India’s food and beverage experiences.
Brands
IICT partners with Gativedhi to bring studio production tools to students
New MoU lets students explore AI-driven production pipelines for AVGC-XR
MUMBAI: The Indian Institute of Creative Technologies (IICT) has teamed up with Gativedhi Technologies to give students a front-row seat to modern studio production. The collaboration will integrate Gativedhi’s AI-powered production intelligence platform, Shotrack, into academic programmes, letting students experience the workflow systems used by animation, VFX and gaming studios.
Under the MoU, faculty, students and researchers will get hands-on access to Shotrack through beta programmes, pilot deployments and academic evaluations. This will allow them to explore simulated production pipelines, understand asset management, track tasks and monitor schedules, essentially seeing how complex projects come together behind the scenes.
Shotrack is designed to tackle a key industry challenge: when multiple studios work on the same project, differing internal systems often create bottlenecks, slow approvals and complicate version control. The platform provides a unified production environment, enabling smoother collaboration across distributed teams while generating operational insights and predictive analytics to optimise crew allocation, forecast schedule risks and manage costs.
The collaboration also opens doors to Gativedhi’s wider ecosystem. Upcoming tools include StudioTrack, for studio operations management covering budgeting, recruitment and IT infrastructure, and WorkTrack, which measures workflow efficiency and team productivity across industries.
IICT plans to embed these tools into programmes covering animation pipelines, VFX workflows, gaming production and media project management. Students will also benefit from guest lectures, masterclasses, workshops, internships and research projects that connect academic learning with real-world studio practices.
IICT CEO Vishwas Deoskar, said the partnership provides “An environment where production pipeline tools can be explored, tested and refined while students gain insight into how large-scale productions are organised.”
Gativedhi Technologies founder & CEO Senthil Kumar added, “This collaboration introduces students to real-world studio management tools and helps us improve our platform with academic feedback.”
With Shotrack in classrooms, India’s future animators, VFX artists and gaming producers will get a taste of studio life long before they step into one.
