Who is Albinder Dhindsa, the new CEO of Eternal?

Gurugram: Albinder Dhindsa has never chased the spotlight. Yet from February 1, he will run Eternal, the company formerly known as Zomato, as Deepinder Goyal steps aside from the chief executive role. The choice is telling. Eternal is betting its future not on vision alone, but on execution.

Dhindsa is best known as the founder and chief executive of Blinkit, the quick-commerce business that has become Eternal’s fastest-growing engine. Under his watch, groceries went from a weekly errand to a 10-minute impulse buy, reshaping how urban India shops and forcing rivals into a costly race for speed.

His path to the corner office has been methodical. Dhindsa graduated with a BTech from IIT Delhi between 2000 and 2004, before earning an MBA from Columbia Business School in New York from 2010 to 2012. The combination of engineering discipline and global business training would later define his leadership style, analytical, data-heavy and relentless on efficiency.

Before entrepreneurship, Dhindsa built his toolkit in consulting and finance. He worked as a transportation analyst at URS Corporation from 2005 to 2007 and later as a senior associate at Cambridge Systematics until 2010. A brief stint at UBS Investment Bank in New York gave him exposure to global capital markets, experience that would prove useful in India’s cash-hungry startup ecosystem.

In 2011, he joined Zomato as head of international operations, helping the company expand beyond India. But it was his 2014 startup, Grofers, later rebranded as Blinkit, that defined his reputation. The business survived funding winters, operational misfires and a brutal pivot before emerging as a leader in quick commerce.

Over nearly 12 years, Dhindsa turned Blinkit into a machine built on dense networks, fast inventory turns and ruthless cost control. It also became central to Eternal’s expansion beyond food delivery, anchoring the group’s push into everyday commerce.

Now Dhindsa will oversee Eternal’s day-to-day operations across food delivery, quick commerce and newer verticals, while Goyal remains on the board to focus on long-term strategy.

The elevation signals a clear message from Eternal’s board. The age of experimentation is over. The age of operators has begun.