Mumbai: Kulfi Collective, a creative studio focused on helping brands build relevance through culture, has strengthened its leadership team with a series of senior appointments and elevations as it embarks on its next phase of growth. The move comes as the company advances its vision of creating a connected operating system that enables brands to participate in culture through creativity, technology, intelligence, and community engagement.
As part of the leadership expansion, Kulfi Collective has appointed Aditya Mehendale as Executive Creative Director. The company has also elevated Jayson D’Mello to Chief Innovation Officer, Abhimanyu Singh to Chief Strategy Officer, and Abhinandan Jain to Chief Financial Officer.
The leadership restructuring is aimed at supporting Kulfi’s ambition to create what it describes as “cultural objects” — campaigns, content, experiences, communities, tools, and intellectual properties that extend beyond traditional media plans and become part of consumer conversations and brand experiences.
Under the new structure, Jayson D’Mello will lead investments in artificial intelligence and agentic workflows across Kulfi’s intelligence, strategy, and production functions. Abhimanyu Singh will focus on building client-facing offerings spanning cultural intelligence, analytics, creative systems, and distribution, while Abhinandan Jain will oversee the company’s financial strategy as it expands its creative capabilities and global footprint.
Aditya Mehendale will spearhead Kulfi’s creative vision. Bringing over a decade of experience across independent and network agencies, Mehendale joins from Leo Burnett and previously spent eight years at Schbang, where he rose to become National Creative Head. His portfolio includes work for brands such as Raw Pressery, Fevicol, Fevikwik, Jeep, Mattel, H&M, and Amazon Prime Video.
Commenting on the company’s growth plans, Advait Gupt, Co-founder & CEO of Kulfi Collective, said, “We’ve spent the last few years asking ourselves what a modern creative company should actually look like. For us, the answer was clear: it has to be faster, more intelligent, more collaborative, and much closer to culture itself. These leadership changes are about building the team that can help us do that at scale.”
Speaking about Mehendale’s appointment, Akshat Gupt, Chief Creative Officer and Co-founder at Kulfi Collective, added, “Aditya joins us at a deeply important moment in Kulfi’s journey. As we rethink how creativity is built, scaled and experienced in an AI-native world, we needed a leader who understands both creative ambition and organisational transformation. He has built and led large creative teams, driven exceptional work across categories, and understands how to put systems in place without losing the soul of the craft. That balance is incredibly important to us as we build the future of Kulfi.”
Commenting on his new role, Aditya Mehendale said, “What really stood out to me about Kulfi was that it doesn’t define itself by the medium. In 2026, the lines between mainline, digital, entertainment and tech are all blurring anyway. Kulfi’s focus is simply on creating work that genuinely leaves a mark on culture. That changes the way you think creatively; you stop thinking in deliverables and start thinking about impact and influence. To me, what makes Kulfi exciting is its ambition to create work that isn’t just served to people, but that they actually want to seek out, participate in, and remember.”
Founded on the premise that brands must actively participate in culture rather than simply advertise around it, Kulfi Collective has built campaigns, experiences, and content for brands including Spotify, Netflix, Red Bull, Meta, LEGO, and Nothing. The company has increasingly focused on the intersection of culture, community, entertainment, and technology, while investing in immersive storytelling and AI-powered creative systems.
