In the summer of 1998, a young boy from Patiala walked into an NTSE camp classroom in Chandigarh, unsure of himself. The best seats were taken. His gaze drifted toward the back, where he spotted an empty chair beside another boy who looked just as lost as he felt. He sat down. The other boy introduced himself: “Deepi.”
Almost 27 years later, Deepi — Deepinder Goyal — has handed that boy, Albinder Dhindsa, “Albi”, the keys to one of India’s most valuable consumer internet companies.
The announcement, timed with Eternal’s Q3FY26 results on Wednesday, marks a generational shift at the food delivery and quick commerce giant.
Goyal, who built Zomato from a restaurant menu aggregator into a publicly listed giant called Eternal, is stepping aside as Group CEO to pursue what he calls “higher-risk exploration and experimentation” — longevity research, brain-monitoring wearables, regional aerospace.
Dhindsa, the man who turned Blinkit (former Grofers) from a cash-burning acquisition into Eternal’s largest growth engine, takes the reins on February 1.
The Accidental Entrepreneur
Dhindsa, by his own admission, was an “accidental entrepreneur”. After IIT Delhi and an MBA from Columbia, he had a comfortable career path — transportation analyst at URS Corporation, senior associate at Cambridge Systematics, a brief stint at UBS Investment Bank.
A startup stint was not in the plan. But when he returned to India and joined Zomato as head of international operations in 2011, working alongside his old friend, he saw a gap: The chaos of India’s unorganised grocery retail. In 2013, he co-founded Grofers with Saurabh Kumar.
What followed was a decade of pivots. Grofers went from hyperlocal delivery to B2B to inventory-led retail, burning through over $700 million in funding from SoftBank, Tiger Global, and Sequoia. By 2021, the company was haemorrhaging cash.
Dhindsa made a bold bet: Rebrand as Blinkit, pivot to 10-minute delivery, and stake everything on quick commerce. Months later, Zomato acquired the company for Rs 4,447 crore in an all-stock deal.
Things only got harder from there. Goyal has said he asked Dhindsa to step down as Blinkit CEO twice after the deal closed. “Rock bottom”, he called that period. Dhindsa agreed to leave — but stayed, absorbed the feedback, and rebuilt.
The turnaround is now a matter of public record. Blinkit tightened dark-store economics, reduced stock-outs, built city-level density, transitioned to an inventory model. In Q3 FY26, it posted its first adjusted EBITDA profit — Rs 4 crore, against a Rs 156 crore loss the prior quarter.
The segment now accounts for 75% of Eternal’s consolidated revenue. The ascent also vindicates a prediction Goyal made at Startup Mahakumbh in March 2024: “Blinkit is a part of Zomato version 4, and in one year’s time, Blinkit would be bigger than Zomato. So, I don’t know for how long Zomato will have its relevance.”
Against this backdrop, it is only fitting that the Blinkit operator now takes over as Group CEO. “He has the DNA of a battle-hardened founder,” Goyal wrote in his letter announcing the transition, “and his ability to execute far exceeds mine.”
Pursuing New Moonshots
What Dhindsa inherits is nothing short of a battlefield. Quick commerce is no longer a two-horse race. Zepto is eyeing a $1.2 billion raise while expanding aggressively on market share through fee waivers and discounts. Reliance Retail’s JioMart has entered the segment meaningfully.
Swiggy’s Instamart, Tata-Digital’s BigBasket, and e-commerce incumbents’ own quick commerce play Flipkart Minutes, and Amazon Now round off an extremely competitive market.
To add to the pressure, the sector’s “fee wars” have compressed delivery partner earnings and sparked strikes across metros. Public perception and regulatory scrutiny on gig worker conditions is intensifying. The Code on Social Security 2020 is inching toward operationalisation, which industry experts suggest could have some impact on margins.
Meanwhile, Goyal’s own attention has drifted toward moonshots. He has invested $25 million from personal wealth into Continue, his longevity-focused initiative, is raising $50 million for Temple, his wearable technology startup, and is actively involved with LAT Aerospace, an aviation startup co-founded with former Zomato COO Surobhi Das to create low-cost and high-frequency short take-off and landing (STOL) aircrafts for regional travel using hybrid-electric power and operating from compact “air-stops” instead of large airports.
Running a public company, he acknowledged in his shareholder letter, demands singular focus and risk discipline — constraints that sit uneasily with his appetite for experimentation.
The test Dhindsa faces now is harder. The syllabus is a $30 billion company. Apart from overseeing Blinkit, he must provide direction to Eternal’s entire portfolio — Zomato’s food delivery, Hyperpure’s B2B supplies, District’s going-out business. These are verticals he has never directly run.
Although the decentralised organisation under him remains, these are additional questions to answer. The invigilators are the public market, well-funded rivals, and a regulatory apparatus waking up to the costs of 10-minute delivery.
Goyal is still in the room. Only this time, he’s not the one who needs help. Dhindsa might have to pass this test on his own facility.