Deepinder Goyal, the co-founder and CEO of the food delivery service Zomato and its parent company Eternal, is stepping down from his role. He will hand the top position to Albinder Dhindsa, the current CEO of Eternal’s quick-commerce division, Blinkit.
Goyal announced on Wednesday that he will remain on Eternal’s board as vice chairman. He explained that he is shifting his focus to higher-risk exploration and experimentation, which he believes may be harder to pursue within the constraints of a publicly listed company. In a letter to Eternal’s shareholders, Goyal stated that this is a change in title, not in his commitment toward outcomes, adding that Eternal remains his life’s work.
Goyal co-founded Zomato with Pankaj Chaddah in 2008. They started the business as a restaurant discovery and reviews platform called FoodieBay while both were working at Bain & Company. In 2009, they quit their jobs to focus on the business full-time. They rebranded it as Zomato in 2010 amid a naming conflict with eBay, before expanding into food delivery in 2015.
Chaddah left the company in 2018. Zomato later consolidated its position by acquiring Uber Eats’ India business in 2020, and then acquiring Blinkit, formerly known as Grofers, for 568 million dollars in 2022.
This leadership change comes as Eternal reported strong momentum in its third quarter. Profit rose about 73 percent to 1.02 billion rupees, or approximately 11.13 million dollars, from a year earlier. Adjusted revenue was 166.92 billion rupees, about 1.8 billion dollars, up 190 percent from the previous year. Blinkit remained the company’s fastest-growing business, with its net order value jumping 121 percent to 133.0 billion rupees, roughly 1.45 billion dollars, in the last quarter.
Outside of Eternal, Goyal has been working on other projects in recent months. These include a longevity-focused initiative called Continue Research and an experimental brain-health wearable dubbed “Temple.” He is also a co-founder of the aviation startup LAT Aerospace and works as an angel investor.
The handover could be an indicator of Blinkit’s rising influence inside Eternal, as the company’s growth skews toward quick commerce and away from its mainstay of food delivery.
Quick commerce in India is booming, even as the sector faces rising scrutiny over working conditions for the thousands of gig workers employed in the industry. The country’s labour ministry recently asked platforms to drop their “10-minute delivery” marketing and to put in place measures to improve conditions for their delivery personnel.