MAM
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.
MAM
DGTOOHL partners Magnite to scale programmatic DOOH in India
Tie-up aims to boost transparency and real-time access in outdoor ads
NEW DELHI: DGTOOHL, a product of Mobiyoung, has entered into a strategic partnership with Magnite to expand programmatic digital out-of-home advertising capabilities in India, as the sector looks to modernise and align more closely with digital media standards.
The collaboration is aimed at addressing long-standing inefficiencies in the outdoor advertising ecosystem, where manual processes and limited transparency have often made campaign execution difficult to track and measure. By introducing programmatic integration, the partnership seeks to bring real-time visibility, improved accountability and data-led decision-making to the medium.
Outdoor advertising in India has traditionally lagged behind digital channels in terms of measurement and optimisation. The move towards programmatic DOOH is expected to change that, enabling advertisers to monitor, audit and refine campaigns with greater precision.
Under the partnership, Magnite will provide the infrastructure to connect DOOH inventory with global demand-side platforms, allowing advertisers to plan and activate outdoor campaigns programmatically, much like they do across mobile, web and connected TV.
“Programmatic DOOH is bringing a much-needed shift in how outdoor advertising is planned and executed,” said DGTOOHL co-founder and CTO Mayank Sharma. “By introducing transparency and real-time capabilities, we are enabling advertisers to move beyond traditional limitations and adopt a more measurable, data-led approach.”
DGTOOHL will focus on aggregating and streamlining access to DOOH media inventory, while Magnite will handle real-time transactions and demand integration, creating a more seamless buying experience for brands and agencies.
The timing reflects a broader industry shift. As programmatic buying becomes standard across digital formats, DOOH is increasingly being seen as the next frontier, allowing brands to extend digital strategies into physical environments. This integration enables more cohesive, cross-channel campaigns, where outdoor advertising complements online and CTV efforts to boost reach and recall.
“As advertisers look for unified and measurable media solutions, programmatic DOOH offers a strong opportunity to extend digital strategies into the physical world,” said Magnite senior account manager Jerit Kunjumon.
Industries such as FMCG, real estate, automotive and retail, traditionally heavy users of outdoor media, are expected to be among the early adopters of programmatic DOOH in India.
The partnership also promises operational benefits, including near real-time campaign activation, reduced reliance on intermediaries and improved monitoring of campaign performance.
As digital and physical media ecosystems continue to converge, the collaboration between DGTOOHL and Magnite signals a step towards making outdoor advertising more accountable, scalable and aligned with the expectations of modern marketers.
