Who is Albinder Dhindsa, Eternal's new CEO, replacing Deepinder Goyal?

Eternal, the parent company of Zomato, has a new CEO.

The company has announced that Albinder Dhindsa, who is the CEO of Blinkit, will be taking over from Deepinder Goyal. The Eternal founder had announced that he would be stepping down from his position in a letter to shareholders.

“Today, I am going to step away from the Group CEO role, and subject to shareholders’ approval, will remain on the board of directors as Vice Chairman. Albinder Dhindsa (Albi) will be Eternal’s new Group CEO,” Goyal wrote.

“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,” he said in his letter. “If these ideas belonged inside Eternal’s strategic scope, I would have pursued them within the company. They do not.”

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But who is Dhindsa? What do we know about him?

Let’s take a closer look.

Who is he?

Dhindsa was born in Punjab’s Patiala. He obtained a Bachelor of Technology from IIT-Delhi before doing an MBA from Columbia University in New York. Dhindsa worked as a transportation analyst at URS Corporation before he took up a position as a senior associate at Cambridge Systematics. He then worked as an associate at UBS Investment Bank. Dhindsa then worked as Zomato’s Head of International Operations till 2014.

Dhindsa founded Blinkit in 2013 alongside Saurabh Kumar. The service, which was called Grofers at the time, sought to transform “India’s vast unorganised grocery ecosystem”. The idea was to function as a hyperlocal delivery service that linked neighbourhood shops to customers.

Grofers rebranded as Blinkit in 2021 when it shifted to the quick-commerce model. The company was a pioneer in the space that offered delivery of groceries and other everyday items within 10 minutes. Zomato acquired Blinkit in 2022 for Rs 4,447 crore, or about $568 million (approximately Rs 4,700 crore at current exchange rates) at the time, in an all-stock deal.

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According to Hindustan Times, while Goyal is creative and obsessed with product design, Dhindsa is savvy when it comes to supply chain optimisation and unit economics.

Interestingly, Goyal has spoken about how he asked Dhindsa to leave the company after Eternal acquired Blinkit.

“Right after we acquired Blinkit, I asked him (Albinder) to leave. I told him, ‘You will not be able to cut it.’ He said okay. This happened twice during that timeframe, and we started the transition,” Goyal said.

‘DNA of battle-hardened founder’

“The centre of gravity for operating decisions moves to Albi. As Group CEO, he will own day-to-day execution, operating priorities, and business decisions. Blinkit’s journey from acquisition to breakeven happened under his leadership. He built the team, the culture, the supply chain, the operating rhythm,” his letter read.

“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. Blinkit remains our largest growth opportunity and will remain Albi’s top priority. Our decentralised structure, where each business has a CEO with full ownership, continues unchanged – and will help Albi execute this well.”

Dhindsa is married to Akriti Chopra, the former Chief People Officer (CPO) and co-founder of Zomato. According to the Blinkit website, Dhindsa is fond of reading, playing basketball, listening to French music and eating meals prepared by his mother. He will now be handling Zomato’s food delivery business, cloud kitchens, grocery delivery and other ventures.

“We will not chase growth for the sake of growth. We will not do anything that is not in the long-term interests of the business,” Dhindsa told Bloomberg in December.

With inputs from agencies