Deepinder Goyal’s move to step down as CEO of Eternal on February 1 comes after a year in which his public persona stretched well beyond food and quick commerce.
On one front, he’s been increasingly vocal about longevity science, backing a personal research collective called Continue Research with a $25 million fund and promoting an experimental brain‑blood‑flow wearable dubbed Temple—linked to his “gravity ageing” hypothesis and teased publicly through late‑2025 and early‑2026. The device and claims have fascinated founders and drawn sharp pushback from clinicians who argue the science needs rigorous validation, keeping Goyal at the centre of a high‑profile debate about biohacking in India.
At the same time, Goyal has been embroiled in the 10‑minute delivery controversy around Blinkit’s ultra‑fast model—defending the system as a function of store density and process design rather than rider speeding, even as gig‑worker strikes and a labour ministry intervention pushed Blinkit to drop the “10‑minute” branding across platforms this month. The back‑and‑forth kept him in the crosshairs of a nationwide conversation about rider safety, payouts and the optics of speed guarantees—debates likely to follow Eternal into its new leadership chapter under Albinder Dhindsa.
As he steps down, we look back at some of the major milestones in Goyal’s journey—from founding Zomato to building Eternal into a multi‑business group.
Building Zomato as a food discovery platform (2010–2014)
Deepinder Goyal founded Foodiebay, which would later become Zomato in 2010 as a restaurant discovery and menu‑listing platform, focusing on user experience, product depth, and market-by-market expansion rather than logistics or heavy operational infrastructure. In its early years, the company grew by digitising menus, building strong merchant relationships, and expanding rapidly across Indian cities and overseas markets. Zomato became one of the most visible consumer internet startups to emerge from India in the early 2010s.
Entry into food delivery (2015–2019)
As competition intensified and consumer behaviour shifted, Zomato began to pivot decisively towards food delivery, a move that changed the nature of the business and Goyal’s role as CEO. The transition required heavy capital deployment, logistics build‑out, and a focus on unit economics. This phase also saw intermittent consolidation, aggressive discounting, and increasing investor scrutiny, pushing Goyal from a product visionary into a full‑stack operator managing scale, losses, and competitive pressure. By the end of the decade, food delivery had become the company’s core engine, even as profitability remained elusive.
Taking Zomato Public (2020–2021)
Zomato’s decision to go public in 2021 marked a structural shift in both governance and leadership expectations. As founder-CEO of a listed company, Goyal now operated under quarterly scrutiny, regulatory disclosures, and investor discipline. The IPO brought fresh capital but also heightened accountability, forcing sharper trade‑offs between experimentation and predictability.
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The Blinkit Bet (2022–2023)
The acquisition of Blinkit marked one of the most consequential decisions of Goyal’s tenure. While initially controversial, the quick‑commerce push signalled a willingness to bet on adjacencies that went beyond food delivery. As Blinkit expanded and began narrowing losses, it increasingly became the growth driver within the group. Operationally, however, this also meant Zomato was running two capital‑intensive, execution‑heavy businesses, further reducing room for founder‑style experimentation within the listed structure.
Rebranding to Eternal (2024–2025)
The
rebranding of Zomato to Eternal reflected a shift from a single‑brand identity to a holding‑company structure overseeing multiple consumer internet businesses. This phase saw clearer verticalisation, with Blinkit gaining prominence and Albinder Dhindsa emerging as one of the group’s most effective operators. Internally, this period is widely seen as the beginning of a managed leadership transition, as Eternal moved toward more specialised, execution‑driven CEOs running core businesses.
Stepping back from execution (January 2026)
Earlier on Wednesday, Goyal announced his decision to resign as CEO of Eternal, effective February 1, citing a desire to pursue “higher‑risk exploration and experimentation” that he felt did not align with the responsibilities of leading a listed company. While stepping away from day‑to‑day operations, Goyal is expected to remain involved at the board level as vice chairman, retaining strategic influence without direct operational control.
Albinder Dhindsa, founder and CEO of Blinkit, was named as his successor, marking a clear handover to an execution‑focussed leader at a time when Eternal is prioritising discipline, profitability, and scale.
