Deepinder Goyal Success Story: From Office Cafeteria to Building India’s Food-Tech Giant
After 18 years at the helm, Deepinder Goyal stepped down as CEO of Eternal to pursue what he calls "significantly higher-risk" ideas.
Deepinder Goyal was born on January 26, 1983, in Muktsar, Punjab. He was raised in a family of teachers in Punjab, alongside one elder brother and a younger sister. The family valued education deeply, a value that would shape Goyal’s trajectory from small-town Punjab to one of India’s most prestigious engineering institutions.
After completing his early education in Chandigarh, he went on to study Mathematics and Computing at IIT Delhi, graduating in 2005. This programme, one of the most competitive at the institution gave Goyal a foundation in both analytical rigour and applied technology. He graduated in 2005 and joined one of the world’s most respected strategy consulting firms immediately after.
Career at Bain & Company
Post graduating from IIT Delhi, Deepinder Goyal started working as a consultant at Bain & Company. It was here that he noticed a number of his colleagues used to queue up at the pantry to look for menus to order food. This gave him the idea to create an online directory of food menus.
It was a simple, practical observation and the kind that most people have and forget. Goyal did not forget it. He began building a website in his spare time, alongside his then-girlfriend Kanchan Joshi and her sister. Since all three had regular full-time jobs, they pursued this entrepreneurial dream on the side. His biggest hurdle was his family, they were reluctant about him leaving his stable job at Bain & Company.
That website, initially called foodlet.in, was soon renamed to foodiebay.com and eventually become Zomato.
Foodiebay to Zomato: 2008 to 2010
Goyal launched Foodiebay in 2008. The concept was straightforward: digitise restaurant menus and make them searchable online. There was no food delivery involved, no subscription, no algorithm. Just menus scanned and uploaded, making them accessible without calling a restaurant or standing in a queue.
The platform spread quickly through word of mouth, starting with Goyal’s colleagues at Bain. Office workers in Delhi’s corporate sector found it useful. Within months, restaurants were approaching Foodiebay proactively to get listed. What began as an internal solution for one office became a city-wide utility.
In 2010, Goyal left Bain & Company to work full-time on the platform. The same year, with the backing of Info Edge India, the parent company of Naukri.com, Foodiebay raised its first significant funding.
Also in 2010, the platform was rebranded from Foodiebay to Zomato, a name with no literal meaning, but with a distinct, memorable identity that could travel across geographies. It was a deliberate choice: the founders were already thinking globally.
Zomato’s Early Growth: 2010 to 2015
Zomato’s early growth was built on a data-first approach. The company deployed teams of people to physically visit restaurants across Indian cities, collect menus, photograph interiors, verify hours, and gather information that no digital database contained. It was a labour-intensive, city-by-city expansion and grinding work that built a defensible data moat that competitors could not easily replicate.
By 2012, Zomato had expanded beyond Delhi to Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, and Kolkata. It was no longer just a menu directory, it had added restaurant reviews, user ratings, photos, and discovery features. The product had evolved from a utility into a destination.
The global expansion came early and aggressively. Zomato entered Sri Lanka in 2012, South Africa and the Philippines in 2013, and by 2014 was present in 22 countries including the UAE, the UK, New Zealand, Turkey, and Brazil.
Pankaj Chaddah, Goyal’s IIT Delhi classmate, co-founded Zomato alongside him and served as a key operational leader through the early growth years before departing in 2018.
Funding Journey: From Info Edge to Unicorn
Info Edge invested ₹4.7 crore in 2010 in exchange for an approximately 18% stake, becoming Zomato’s first institutional backer. This was followed by a Series B from Info Edge in 2011, a $37 million Series C led by Sequoia Capital and Info Edge in 2013, and a $60 million Series D in 2014.
The pivotal round came in 2015 when Zomato raised $60 million from Temasek, Info Edge, and Vy Capital at a $1 billion valuation, crossing the unicorn threshold. By 2018, total funding raised exceeded $400 million from investors including Sequoia Capital, Ant Financial (Alibaba’s fintech arm), Temasek, and Tiger Global.
Zomato launched in 2008, led to a landmark stock market listing in 2021 valued at $12 billion, and later rebranded the group as Eternal following its purchase of Blinkit in 2022.
The Pivot to Food Delivery: 2015 to 2019
Zomato’s evolution from a restaurant discovery platform to a food delivery company was not instant. The company launched its food delivery service in 2015 that required building an entirely new infrastructure of delivery partners, logistics software, and restaurant partnerships.
The pivot coincided with intense competition. Swiggy launched in Bengaluru in 2014 and began expanding aggressively. Foodpanda, UberEats, and various other players were entering the Indian market simultaneously. The food delivery race had begun in earnest.
Zomato responded with scale and speed. It introduced Zomato Gold, a subscription programme offering discounts and complimentary dishes at partner restaurants which grew to millions of subscribers within months of launch and became one of the company’s most successful customer retention tools.
By 2019, Zomato was processing 400,000 orders per day across India. The food delivery business had firmly overtaken restaurant discovery as the company’s primary revenue driver.
Zomato’s IPO: July 2021
Zomato’s initial public offering in July 2021 was a landmark moment for India’s startup ecosystem. The 2021 IPO drew significant investor interest and valued the company at $12 billion, making it one of the largest tech IPOs India had seen and one of the first new-age internet companies to list on Indian exchanges.
The IPO was subscribed 38 times. Grey market premium before listing reflected extraordinary retail investor enthusiasm. The listing on NSE and BSE on July 23, 2021, at ₹116 per share against an issue price of ₹76, was watched by the entire Indian startup community as a signal that public markets were ready to value Indian consumer internet businesses at global multiples.
The Blinkit Acquisition: 2022
The most consequential strategic decision Deepinder Goyal made after the IPO was the acquisition of Blinkit (then known as Grofers) in August 2022 for approximately $568 million in an all-stock deal.
Blinkit was India’s leading quick commerce platform, delivering groceries and essentials in 10 minutes through a dark store model. At the time of acquisition, Blinkit was burning significant cash and the deal was controversial among investors who questioned whether Zomato should take on an unprofitable quick commerce business.
Goyal’s conviction was clear: food and grocery together represented India’s largest consumer spending category, and speed of delivery was becoming the primary competitive differentiator. Since the 2022 acquisition, Zomato has injected ₹4,300 crore into Blinkit, with ₹1,500 crore deployed in February 2025 alone, fast-tracking its dark store target of 2,000 outlets.
That conviction has been validated. Blinkit is now Eternal’s largest and fastest-growing revenue driver, contributing over 30% of consolidated revenue.
Eternal Limited: The Rebrand and the Multi-Vertical Vision
In March 2025, Zomato’s board approved a rebranding of the parent company to Eternal Limited.
Eternal now operates four distinct business verticals:
Zomato: food delivery and restaurant discovery, the original business. Zomato’s monthly transacting users reached 22.9 million in Q1 FY26, up from 20.3 million a year earlier.
Blinkit: quick commerce for groceries, electronics, and essentials. Blinkit’s user base doubled from 7.6 million to 16.9 million in one year. The platform is targeting 2,000 dark stores by end of 2025, up from around 700 when it was acquired.
Hyperpure: a B2B supply chain platform that sources fresh produce, staples, dairy, and kitchen essentials and supplies them directly to restaurants and dark stores. Hyperpure’s revenue reached ₹2,295 crore in Q1 FY26, up 89% year-on-year from ₹1,212 crore in Q1 FY25.
District: the going-out vertical covering restaurant discovery, table reservations, event ticketing, and live experiences. District’s revenue more than doubled year-on-year to ₹207 crore in Q1 FY26. The platform has integrated entertainment through acquisitions of event companies including Wasteland and Orgen.
Financial Performance: The Numbers
Eternal’s revenue surged 67% year-on-year to ₹20,243 crore in FY25, according to the MediaNama tracking analysis. Net profit grew to ₹527 crore from ₹351 crore in FY24, while adjusted EBITDA rose to ₹1,079 crore from ₹372 crore in FY24.
For the full financial year FY26, the company reported a massive 169% surge in revenue from operations to ₹54,364 crore, compared with ₹20,243 crore in FY25. This explosive growth was heavily accelerated by Blinkit transitioning to an inventory-led accounting model. However, aggressive expansion investments caused full-year net profits to drop 31% year-on-year to ₹366 crore. Profitability recovered sharply toward the end of the year, with Q4 FY26 consolidated net profit reaching ₹174 crore, a 4.5X jump compared with ₹39 crore in Q4 FY25.
The CEO Transition: February 2026
In January 2026, Deepinder Goyal announced one of the most significant corporate decisions of his career: stepping down as Group CEO of Eternal after nearly 18 years at the helm.
Goyal resigned as Director, Managing Director, and CEO of Eternal Limited effective February 1, 2026. Albinder Singh Dhindsa, founder and CEO of Blinkit, was appointed as the new Group CEO from the same date. Goyal transitioned to the role of Vice Chairman and Director on Eternal’s board for a five-year term, subject to shareholder approval.
In a letter to shareholders, Goyal explained that his decision was driven by a desire to pursue “significantly higher-risk” ideas and experimental ventures. He stated that the transition would reinforce Eternal’s institutional discipline by placing execution in the hands of “battle-hardened” operators like Dhindsa.
Goyal added: “Eternal deserves to remain focused and disciplined, while exploring new areas of growth that are relevant to its current line of business. Day-to-day operating decisions will now move fully to Dhindsa.”
Beyond Eternal: New Ventures
Post-Eternal, Deepinder Goyal is building a portfolio of ventures in sectors far removed from food delivery.
LAT Aerospace: LAT Aerospace is an aerospace company focused on building Short Take-Off and Landing (STOL) aircraft for regional and short-haul aviation in India and emerging markets. Goyal co-founded it with Surobhi Das, former COO of Zomato, and invested $20 million. In 2026, LAT Aerospace acquired Sharang Shakti, a robotics startup, to expand into the defence sector.
Temple: Temple is a health-tech startup focused on building wearable devices that monitor brain blood flow. It addresses one of the least explored frontiers in consumer health monitoring, neural and cerebrovascular health, a category with no mainstream wearable product currently available at consumer scale.
Continue Research: Goyal has invested $25 million through his research group Continue Research to explore human biology and longevity, a personal passion that reflects his broader interest in extending human healthspan through science and technology.
Deepinder Goyal Personal Life
Deepinder Goyal married Grecia Munoz, a Mexican model and entrepreneur who has since adopted the name Gia Goyal in a private ceremony in early 2024. News of their marriage first surfaced in March 2024 after they returned from their honeymoon in France. Grecia relocated to India and updated her social media profile to reflect her new identity.
In late 2024, the couple made headlines for working together as Zomato delivery agents for a day in Gurgaon to better understand the on-ground experience of the delivery partners who power Eternal’s core business. Goyal has a daughter named Siara from his first marriage to Kanchan Joshi, whom he met during his IIT Delhi years.
As of January 2026, Goyal’s net worth is estimated at $1.6 billion, according to Forbes.
Shark Tank India
Deepinder Goyal joined Shark Tank India as a judge for Season 3, providing data-driven and strategy-focused assessments to startup pitches. His tenure on the show was limited to Season 3, he stated publicly at the ET Startup Awards 2024 that Swiggy’s sponsorship of Shark Tank India resulted in him not being invited back. His single season on the panel was notable for his measured, fundamentals-first approach to evaluating businesses.
Angel Investments
As of March 2025, Deepinder Goyal has made 22 investments, with his most recent being a $20 million investment in LAT Aerospace in March 2025. His investment portfolio spans deep tech, health, consumer tech, and logistics. Investments include companies across India and international markets, reflecting a broad-based interest in technology-driven businesses beyond food and commerce.
Awards and Recognition
Deepinder Goyal has received consistent recognition across his career. In 2011, he received the Economic Times Startup of the Year Award. In 2012, he was honoured with the Business Today Young Business Leader Award. In 2018, he received the Distinguished Alumni Award from IIT Delhi.
He is consistently featured on Forbes India Rich List, Fortune India 40 Under 40, and other major business rankings tracking India’s most influential entrepreneurs.
What Deepinder’s Journey Reflects
Deepinder Goyal’s story is one of India’s clearest examples of how a single observation can compound into a multi-decade enterprise if acted on with enough conviction and consistency.
Zomato was not built on a sudden breakthrough. It was built on a relentless cycle of product iteration, geographic expansion, strategic retreat when necessary, and the willingness to make large, uncomfortable bets, the Blinkit acquisition being the clearest example.
After 18 years, he has handed the operational reins to the next generation of leaders. What he builds next in aerospace, brain health, and longevity, will be watched just as closely.