Deepinder Goyal to step down as Eternal CEO; Blinkit's Albinder Dhindsa to take over

Eternal founder Deepinder Goyal on Wednesday said he will step down from his role as Group CEO and Albinder Dhindsa will take over the top executive position.

Goyal said he would continue on the board as vice chairman.

"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," the founder CEO said in a letter to shareholders.

“The expectations, legal and otherwise, of a public company CEO in India demand singular focus,” he added.

Dhindsa, who currently heads Eternal’s quick-commerce arm Blinkit, will become group CEO at a time when Blinkit is seen as the company’s biggest growth driver.

Goyal said Blinkit’s journey from acquisition to breakeven took place under Dhindsa’s leadership, crediting him with building its team, culture, supply chain and operating rhythm.

"He has the DNA of a battle-hardened founder and his ability to execute far exceeds mine. He is more than capable of leading Eternal as Group CEO," Goyal said.

As part of the transition, Goyal said all of his unvested employee stock options would revert to the company’s ESOP pool.

The move, he said, would help ensure meaningful wealth-creation opportunities for future leaders and strengthen long-term retention without increasing shareholder dilution.

Goyal has been eyeing the regional air travel segment with LAT Aerospace, a startup he has invested in.

The startup aims to build low-cost STOL aircraft with up to 24 seats that can operate from compact “air-stops” comparable to the size of a parking lot.

In November last year, Goyal announced that the first technology demonstrator developed by LAT Aerospace is “almost ready for flight”.

He said LAT has built a fully electric, fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle from scratch within a few months, supported by a flight lab the team assembled in-house.

He has repeatedly clarified that LAT Aerospace is not part of Eternal.

In December, the entrepreneur teased the launch of a new wearable by Temple, a wearable device company he founded.

He even appeared on a podcast wearing a small metallic clip that is reportedly designed to monitor brain blood flow in real-time.

Eternal Q3 Results

Eternal’s Q3FY26 revenue from operations jumped 200% at ₹16,315 crore as against ₹5,450 crore in the same period last year. The sharp jump in the revenue is primarily due to 776% jump in the quick commerce revenue at ₹12,256 crore. The food delivery segment jumped ₹29% YoY to ₹2,676 crore.

The company’s EBITDA for the quarter jumped 77% YoY to ₹368 crore as against ₹207 crore in the previous year’s same quarter. However, the operating margin contracted to 2.6% in the Q3FY26 as compared to 3.8% in the same period last year.