India’s Best CEOs 2025: How Deepinder Goyal is turning Eternal into an Ecosystem Powerhouse

DEEPINDER GOYAL is a founder who has seen every phase of a business cycle and decided that the sensible thing is to treat each problem as precisely as you treat a leaky pipe: find the leak, patch it, stop the damage, repeat. In fact, Goyal’s public story is often told in soundbites — the man who delivers food himself, the founder who stays at a lush green five-acre farmhouse in Delhi’s Dera Mandi area with a fleet of gleaming machines — Porsche, Aston Martin, Lamborghini, and Bentley — in the driveway. The private story, as he relays, is quieter and more arithmetic: no grand vision, just “one step after the other”. At his farmhouse, about an hour’s drive from Central Delhi, Goyal comes across as a man of few words. Humble. Direct. The cars are background noise; the person is not. “I didn’t even start this to build a company or a unicorn,” he says, smiling. “When I started Zomato in 2008, the idea was to list restaurant menus, and make some ad money, maybe a couple of lakhs a month. I didn’t want to do a job.” Back then, he was a young consultant at Bain & Company, restless with the idea of doing someone else’s work for long hours. But slowly, Zomato, which began as a side project, became a phenomenon. “I actually started this to work less, but ended up working more,” he says. What began as a simple directory morphed into India’s largest food delivery platform — and from there, a consumer tech group spanning food, quick commerce, dining out, ticketing, and supply chains. For someone who’s spent nearly two decades at the helm of a company that’s become shorthand for India’s food economy, Goyal doesn’t think in the language of grand visions or long-term targets. “I don’t have any goals like how large I want the company to get,” he says. “It’s just about living in the reality right now.” The approach has defined Zomato’s evolution — and survival. The shift from restaurant listings to food delivery in 2015, Goyal recalls, wasn’t strategic foresight, but a necessity. “Food delivery happened because we thought our listings business would be under threat if we didn’t do it. It wasn’t a matter of choice or vision. It was pretty much, we have to do it, or we’ll have to shut down.” He wasn’t wrong. “Now there are no listing businesses left,” he points out. “So we could see that for survival, we had to do this.” Even Blinkit — India’s largest quick-commerce player — began as a defensive move. “If a new quick-commerce player emerges, they’ll have a large fleet,” he explains. “It’s super easy for that company to get into food delivery. But building quick commerce is harder if you’re a food delivery player. So we said, we have to do quick commerce. Otherwise, what we have is going to be toast.” He pauses. “Once you do something, you have to do it well. So that’s it. No grand plans.” Today Zomato sits under Eternal, the parent company that also houses Blinkit, ‘going-out’ app District, and B2B restaurant supply arm Hyperpure. In FY25, Eternal’s net sales surged to ₹20,243 crore, a three-year CAGR of 69%, according to Capitaline data. It reported a PAT of ₹527 crore, after posting losses in the previous fiscals. The scale of the machine is staggering. In Q1FY26, the combined net order value (NOV) of Eternal’s B2C businesses grew 55% YoY to ₹20,183 crore, the first quarter where quick commerce overtook food delivery. On an annualised basis, Eternal’s B2C businesses now hover around $10 billion in NOV; quick commerce accounts for nearly half of it. Its B2B arm, Hyperpure, grew 89% YoY that quarter. The company expects a temporary slowdown ahead, but Goyal doesn’t fuss over quarterly fluctuations. “We only chase good growth, something that’s not powered by subsidies — something that will stay even if you remove the discounts. That’s what we do.” For him, profitability isn’t a trade-off. “Growth versus profit is not a question that happens in our head,” he says. “We only chase good growth. Profitability is a separate optimisation metric.” That clarity shows up in the numbers. Eternal’s consolidated adjusted revenue rose 67% YoY to ₹7,563 crore in Q1FY26, while adjusted Ebitda slipped 42% YoY to ₹172 crore, largely due to continued investments in Blinkit and District — two verticals Goyal says are “long bets that must be done well”. Quick commerce, for all its volatility, has become Goyal’s most visible experiment. According to Emkay Research, Eternal is now entering a crucial transition phase — moving Blinkit from a marketplace to an inventory-ownership model over the next two-three quarters. Analysts say the shift, though capital intensive, could expand margins by nearly 100 basis points and give Zomato tighter control on inventory, pricing, and supply chains. Blinkit, which contributes nearly half of Eternal’s B2C value, has done what many thought impossible — reach near profitability without the crutch of discounts. “You know, we’re almost profitable on quick commerce,” he says. “Everybody else is still burning $100–200 million at one-third our size.” And how’s that? “We just have a better product — more SKUs (stock-keeping units), fewer out-of-stocks and denser dark store networks. Blinkit will deliver faster because the store is closer — not because riders are riding faster,” says Goyal. He’s unapologetic about pricing though. “If we discount, then the discount becomes the product. That’s not a healthy habit for customers in the long term.” And people are paying. Despite the common notion that quick commerce thrives only in metros, Blinkit’s data tells another story. “We’re live in over 100 cities now, including Tier II and III,” he says. “The funny thing is our average order values are almost the same in smaller towns as in metros. The wealth in India is fairly spread out.” Blinkit sells everything, from groceries to air-conditioners. “We stock ACs, refrigerators, even suitcases — and they sell the same day,” says Goyal. “Inventory is small, but replenished multiple times a day. Our prediction algos know what will sell.” He’s not interested in private labels or pushing brands. “We don’t promote any brand. We stock what sells. Shelf space is precious... Also, we never do private labels. Why would we? Our margins are solid. Private labels may make sense for others, not us.” Seshadri Sen, head of research at Emkay Global, describes Blinkit’s Q1FY26 performance as “excellent execution,” with gross order value (GOV) jumping 140% YoY to ₹11,821 crore — surpassing food delivery GOV (₹10,769 crore) for the first time. Eternal plans to expand Blinkit’s store network to 3,000 from the current 1,544, a move that could cement its lead against competition such as Amazon, Flipkart, and Reliance. ‘Amazon Now’ has begun operations in Mumbai with around 100 dark stores, compared with Blinkit’s 1,544 and Swiggy’s 1,062. While Amazon brings deep pockets, Sen believes incumbents such as Blinkit are “better placed” with stronger supply chains, consumer recall, and superior unit economics. While Blinkit has grabbed headlines, Goyal’s other businesses are quietly scaling. Hyperpure, Zomato’s B2B platform, started seven to eight years ago to streamline restaurant sourcing. “We try to source ingredients directly from farmers and suppliers,” he says. “It’s just to make a restaurant owner’s life easier.” Hyperpure supplies everything, from vegetables, cheese, sauces, and dairy to knives and utensils. “A restaurant doesn’t need to go anywhere else,” says Goyal. “Prices are amazing because we aggregate and ship on time. It’s professionally run.” District is Goyal’s attempt to rebuild what the brand started with — helping people discover where to eat and what to do outside home. “District is just saying — let’s create a separate going-out app — restaurants, movies, concerts, or even visiting the Taj Mahal. We want to make going out easy, like Zomato and Blinkit make staying in easy.” District’s revenue is growing at 30%+ with around 2 million monthly transacting users, according to Emkay’s report. For all his disinterest in “vision talk,” Goyal’s decisions show a razor-sharp understanding of market timing — stepping in just before disruption hits. “We don’t respond to disruptions,” he says, “We respond to possible disruptions. The disruption hadn’t happened yet, but we could see it coming.” His worldview is pragmatic to a fault. “Everything we do is based on survival. Once you start something, you do it well. If it fails, it fails. You move on.” His management style mirrors that simplicity. “Culture is about tiny habits,” he says. “There’s no magic formula. You just keep your eyes and ears open, correct people a hundred times a month. Over time, habits change. That’s culture.” For someone who built Zomato through years of scrutiny, being a public company hasn’t made things harder. “It’s easier now,” he says. “Earlier, investors would ask for weekly data. There was no long-term thinking possible. Now we think in quarters.” Ask him which business excites him the most and he smiles: “My favourite kid is the most troublesome kid that day.” Fortune India is now on WhatsApp! Get the latest updates from the world of business and economy delivered straight to your phone. Subscribe now.

India’s Best CEOs 2025: How Deepinder Goyal is turning Eternal into an Ecosystem Powerhouse

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