Coming full circle: Tracing the journey of Eternal’s new CEO Albinder Dhindsa

Albinder Dhindsa, often referred to as Albi within Eternal, on Wednesday took the reins of the food-tech giant’s empire, which spans Zomato, Hyperpure, and Dhindsa’s own brainchild, Blinkit. 

Born in Patiala, Punjab, Dhindsa began his professional career as a Transportation Analyst at URS Corporation, an engineering, design, and government contractor, which was later acquired by AECOM. He then went on to work at Cambridge Systematics and UBS Investment Bank before heading back to India to begin a stint at food-delivery platform Zomato. 

He joined Zomato in 2011 as Head of International Operations. The food-delivery platform had just rebranded from Foodiebay and was rapidly expanding across major Indian cities like Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi NCR. By the end of 2011, the company had set out to chart international markets. 

While heading Zomato’s expansion, Dhindsa met Saurabh Kumar, who was working on his own startup, Onenumber. The company had initially planned to provide on-demand pick-up and drop service from neighbourhood shops. However, amidst rising competition, the platform pivoted to solve for pain points neighbourhood shops had with delivery logistics. 

Soon, Dhindsa joined Grofers part-time and, after seeing the opportunity in the hyper-local space, turned in his resignation at Zomato and joined the company full-time. 

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Grofers to Blinkit: the journey

By January 2014, Grofers had begun delivering groceries and FMCG goods for business in Gurugram with just four delivery boys. Within 15 months, the company scaled to 200 on-field delivery partners and over 40 people handling tech, operations, and marketing with Dhindsa as its CEO. 

In 2015, the company began to expand rapidly. It raised funding from Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global, and SoftBank, among others and by 2019, the company was on track to cross a gross merchandise value of Rs 5,000 crore in FY20 with plans to expand to 27 more cities. 

In 2021, the Competition Commission of India approved Deepinder Goyal’s Zomato to acquire a 9.3% stake in Grofers, reuniting Dhindsa with his former employer. The food-tech giant invested $100 million in the company. Grofers rebranded as Blinkit in 2021, focusing on a pivot to quick commerce, ensuring deliveries within 10-minutes, tapping into the wide rider network it had already set up across cities. 

A year later, Zomato acquired its remaining stake in Blinkit for Rs 4,447.48 crore, and Dhindsa rejoined Zomato, this time to run Zomato’s quick commerce delivery arm. 

As of late 2025, Blinkit reportedly commands a dominant 45% to 50% market share in the Indian quick-commerce sector, which is plagued by heightened competition from Swiggy’s Instamart and IPO-bound Zepto. 

Since being acquired by Zomato, Dhindsa has led an aggressive rollout of micro-fulfilment centres or “dark stores”. This network grew from 383 stores at the time of acquisition to over 1,800 stores by late 2025, with a target of 3,000 stores by early 2027. 

Dhindsa also oversaw Blinkit’s transformation from a grocery delivery app to a multi-category platform that now delivers electronics, beauty products, home appliances, apparel and even ambulances within 10 minutes. 

Albinder takes the reins

In a shareholder letter on Wednesday, Eternal’s Founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal said that he will step down as Group CEO, appointing Dhindsa to the role. 

“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,” Goyal noted in the letter. “Blinkit's journey from acquisition to breakeven happened under his leadership. He built the team, the culture, the supply chain, and the 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.”

He also noted that Blinkit remains Eternal’s largest growth opportunity and Dhindsa’s top priority, going forward. 

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