Zomato's Deepinder Goyal has stepped down from the Group CEO role of Eternal Limited - the parent company of the food delivery platform - today. Albinder Dhindsa, who is currently the CEO of Blinkit, will take over as the new chief executive. Goyal announced in a letter addressed to shareholders.
"As Group CEO, he will own day-to-day execution, operating priorities, and business decisions," the Eternal founder said in the letter posted on X.
Goyal, who said he will remain on the board of directors as Vice Chairman, also shared the reason for the change. He said he has recently been drawn towards new ideas that involve "higher-risk experimentation and exploration".
He explained that such ideas are better pursued outside a public company like Eternal, which needs to stay focused and disciplined in its current business strategy.
"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 said.
"I believe Eternal is not going to lose focus or momentum through this change. Rather, it is reinforcing its institutional strength. And personally, I gain the flexibility to explore ideas that sit outside Eternal's scope, without compromising the company's priorities," he added.
The announcement came after Eternal reported a sequential rise in third-quarter profit on surging demand for quick delivery services from its unit Blinkit.
The 42-year-old said the transition allows Eternal to remain sharply focused, while "giving me the space to explore ideas that do not fit Eternal's risk profile".
He said that he will continue working closely with Eternal CFO Akshant Goyal and Dhindsa. "My involvement in long-term strategy, culture, leadership development, ethics and governance continues. This is where I have increasingly focused lately anyway," said Goyal.
He also informed that as part of the transition, all his unvested ESOPs will revert to the ESOP pool to ensure "that Eternal continues to have meaningful wealth-creation opportunities for its next generation of leaders, while strengthening long-term retention without incremental shareholder dilution".
