Deepinder Goyal resigns as CEO of Zomatos parent company Eternal, gears up to take higher risks

In a major board-level reshuffle, Deepinder Goyal, founder, has resigned as the Director, Managing Director and CEO of Eternal Ltd (Formerly Zomato Ltd), effective upon shareholders’ approval. He has been appointed as vice chairman of the company to free himself to undertake ideas with significant risk outside the domain of Eternal. 

The board has accepted his resignation effective close of business hours on February 1, 2026.

The board also recommended and approved the appointment of Albinder Singh Dhindsa (currently, CEO-Blinkit) as Group CEO and Key Managerial Personnel of the company effective February 01, 2026.

In a letter to shareholders, Mr Goyal said, “Of late, I have found myself drawn to a set of new ideas that involve significantly higher-risk exploration and experimentation. These are the kinds of ideas that are better pursued outside a public company like Eternal.”

“If these ideas belonged inside Eternal’s strategic scope, I would have pursued them within the company. They do not. Eternal deserves to remain focused and disciplined, while exploring new areas of growth that are relevant to its current line of business,” he said.

“While I believe I personally have the bandwidth to continue what I am doing at Eternal, and also explore new ideas outside of it, the expectations, legal and otherwise, of a public company CEO in India demand singular focus,” he pointed out.

Stating that this transition would allow Eternal to remain sharply focused, he said this would give him the space to explore ideas that donot fit Eternal’s risk profile.

He said though the new Group CEO would handle day to day execution, his involvement in long-term strategy, culture, leadership development, and ethics and governance would continue.

He said financial future remained meaningfully tied to Eternal, and his incentives remain aligned with long-term shareholder value creation.

As part of this transition, all of his unvested ESOPs will revert to the ESOP pool. “This ensures that Eternal continues to have meaningful wealth-creation opportunities for its next generation of leaders, while strengthening long-term retention without incremental shareholder dilution,” he said. 

He said eighteen years ago, the idea that a menu scanning company could be worth tens of billions of dollars, provide livelihoods to hundreds of thousands of people, and serve millions of families daily seemed absurd. But “We helped prove it was possible. And there’s a lot in store for Eternal to do over the next few decades. I believe Eternal is not going to lose focus or momentum through this change. Rather, it is reinforcing its institutional strength,” he emphasised.

“I want Eternal to become India’s most valuable company. I want us to serve a billion customers. I want us to create the most positive impact on society. I want us to be the source of livelihoods for millions of Indians. This is a change in title, not in commitment towards outcomes. Eternal remains my life’s work,” he concluded.

Eternal on Wednesday (January 21, 2026) reported 72.88% rise in consolidated net profit at ₹102 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2026 as against profit of ₹59 crore a year ago.