In 2022, Deepinder Goyal handed a lifeline of sorts to Albinder Dhindsa when Zomato acquired a struggling Blinkit for ₹4,500 crore. Today, he has handed him over the reins of a ₹2.5-lakh-crore empire that he built from scratch.
On Wednesday, Eternal Ltd. (formerly Zomato) said that Goyal would step down as Group CEO to become vice chairman, handing the daily operations of India’s largest quick-commerce company to Dhindsa.
The move signals a definitive shift: the “startup” phase of Zomato is over. The “scale-up” era, defined by the operational rigour Dhindsa perfected at Blinkit, has begun.
A friend in need, is a friend in deed?
A graduate of IIT Delhi and Columbia Business School, Dhindsa actually cut his teeth at Zomato in its early years, serving as Head of International Operations until 2014. He left to found Grofers (later Blinkit)—a move that placed him in direct competition with the swelling wave of foodtech logistics.
The relationship between Goyal and Dhindsa—friends for over 20 years—was tested when Zomato acquired a struggling Blinkit in 2022. The deal was seen as a “bailout” of a friend. In fact, Goyal himself revealed in a podcast earlier this month that the integration was so rocky he nearly fired Dhindsa twice in the first year, telling him bluntly, “You will not be able to cut it”.
To be sure, Blinkit today is Eternal’s most valuable asset, with growth in gross order value frequently outpacing the core food delivery business.
A study in contrasts
The leadership transition highlights the complementary, albeit contrasting, styles of the two leaders.
- Goyal is seen as creative, and obsessed with product design and “zero-to-one” innovation. His decision to step back cites a desire to pursue “high-risk experimentation” that doesn’t fit the profile of a publicly listed giant.
- Dhindsa has built his reputation on supply chain optimisation and unit economics—the unglamorous “heavy lifting” required to make 10-minute delivery profitable.
In a way, Goyal built the culture, but Dhindsa built the machine.
The road ahead
As Group CEO, Dhindsa inherits a complex empire comprising food delivery, the Blinkit quick-commerce engine, the Hyperpure B2B arm, and the nascent District dining-out vertical.
His challenge is twofold—maintaining the blistering pace of growth at Blinkit even as the food delivery matures—without the looming shadow of the founder.
For Goyal, the exit is a return to his roots as an incubator of wild ideas. For Dhindsa, it is the ultimate vindication—the former employee who left to build his own ship has returned to captain the fleet.