It is really hard to start a business. After you have failed, starting over is an even bigger challenge. Deepinder Goyal was the one who had to do that. His first attempt with Foodlet didn’t go as planned. It simply didn’t take off the way he had anticipated. However, he didn’t throw in the towel and returned to his safe office job. Instead, he decided to give it another shot. He changed the name to Zomato and essentially started from scratch.
The second shot is what made Deepinder India’s talk of the town for success stories. Zomato today is a multi-billion-dollar company. Deepinder’s net worth is estimated to be around Rs 12,000 crores.
How It All Started
Success is not always laid at your door. Sometimes you make mistakes, learn from them, and have another go. This is exactly what Deepinder did. In 2008, Deepinder and Pankaj Chaddah were colleagues at Bain & Company. One lunch, they observed the same problem. The entire office was spending time figuring out where to get food delivered. The reason was that there were no restaurant menus available online.
Therefore, they came up with Foodlet. Basically, they just took pictures of restaurants’ menus in Delhi and put them on a website. The concept was not that bad, but the way they went about it was completely wrong. The name didn’t give any clue. They had no real business model. The growth was extremely slow. And no one was profiting at all.
After 2010, with the change of the company’s name to Zomato, they altered their whole life story with just one decision. Today, Zomato is one of the most valuable companies in India with a valuation of over Rs 2 lakh crore.
The Man Behind The Vision
Deepinder was born on January 26, 1983, in Muktsar, a small town in Punjab. His father was a teacher. They were a typical middle-class family, and in their house, good academic results were highly valued.
He was always good with numbers and keen on solving difficult problems. He studied very hard at school and managed to clear one of the toughest entrance exams in India. He completed his degree from IIT Delhi in Mathematics and Computing in 2005.
After finishing his studies at IIT, he was hired by Bain & Co. as a consultant in 2006. It was a good position with a decent salary and upward mobility opportunities. But he still felt that something was missing. He did not want to work for someone else all his life. Instead, he wanted to create something on his own. Something that genuinely solved real issues for real people.
The Fresh Start with Zomato
Things started to fit together by 2010 when they decided to officially call their business Zomato. The name was attractive and easy to catch one’s memory. It seemed like an entirely new beginning where they could handle things properly this time.
It was in January 2010 when they did the registration officially. Legally, the company was named DC Foodiebay Online Services Private Limited. The first major money to fuel their startup came from Info Edge. They got Rs 8.2 crore, allowing them to hire a small staff and try to expand beyond Delhi.
Deepinder was not just a manager who sat in the office and watched. Personally, he went out with a camera and took pictures of food at restaurants. The list of places he visited in Delhi ran into hundreds. He talked with restaurant owners and persuaded them to upload their menus to the website. Many of these owners did not even know why going online was important. So he had to tell each one.
Zomato was already in six major cities, Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, and Kolkata by 2011. The most important thing at that point was getting the facts right. In case a phone number was incorrect or a menu was outdated, people would stop coming to the site. So they put a lot of effort into being accurate.
Going Global and Taking Risks
In 2012, Deepinder took a step that few people in the Indian startup scene could have predicted. At that time, most companies were still trying to survive in the Indian market. But he made up his mind to take Zomato beyond the Indian borders. They expanded to the UAE, Sri Lanka, Qatar, the UK, the Philippines, and South Africa, all within a year.
Although many investors and advisors questioned the move, Deepinder thought that the problem Zomato was solving was universal because people everywhere face the same issue of where to eat.
Zomato also began to acquire small companies in different countries to accelerate its expansion. They acquired Urbanspoon in the US and Australia, Menu-Mania in New Zealand, and a couple of other local players in different markets. By 2015, Zomato was present in 23 countries across the world. The international expansion proved that Zomato was not just lucky in India but that the product really solved a real problem and could work anywhere.
The Food Delivery Revolution
For the first several years, Zomato was only about helping people discover restaurants. You could use Zomato to find a good restaurant and read reviews, but if you wanted to actually order food, you still had to call the restaurant yourself.
Deepinder watched competitors like Swiggy launch food delivery services and gain popularity, so in March 2015, Zomato launched its food delivery service in India.
Initially, Zomato partnered with third-party logistics companies to handle the actual delivery part, but this created problems because Zomato had no control over the quality of service. So in 2017, Zomato acquired a logistics startup called Runnr for approximately $40 million, which gave Zomato its own fleet of delivery partners.
Building a food delivery business was far more complex than just listing restaurants because it required managing thousands of delivery partners and ensuring food quality. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020 and restaurants were forced to close for dine-in, food delivery became essential. By 2025, Zomato was delivering food from over 200,000 restaurants across India.
Becoming A Billionaire
For many years, Zomato had been running losses, not small amounts, but hundreds of crores every year. This is common with technology companies that focus on growth rather than immediate profits. Investors continued to put money into Zomato because they believed in the long-term potential, but there was always pressure to show a path to profitability.
In July 2021, Zomato went public with an Initial Public Offering on the Indian stock market, which was a milestone not just for Zomato but the entire Indian startup ecosystem. The IPO valued Zomato at over $13 billion, which is more than Rs 1 lakh crore at that time. As of 2025, Deepinder Goyal has a roughly 5.5 per cent stake in Zomato, and with Zomato’s current market capitalisation crossing Rs 2 lakh crore, his personal net worth is pegged at about Rs 12,000 crore or approximately $1.5 billion. According to Forbes, Deepinder is now one of India’s youngest billionaires.
Blinkit Acquisition and Quick Commerce
Deepinder did not stop there, and in June 2022, he went ahead and acquired Blinkit, earlier known as Grofers, for close to $568 million. Blinkit is a quick commerce company that delivers groceries and daily essentials to customers in 10 minutes. Analysts asked why a food delivery company was buying a grocery delivery company.
But Deepinder had a clear vision because he knew that the logistics and technology required to deliver food quickly were pretty similar to what was required to deliver groceries quickly. The Blinkit acquisition turned out to be a masterstroke because business grew rapidly under Zomato’s management. Blinkit’s revenues grew 129 per cent year-on-year, and Blinkit started operating more than 10,000 dark stores by the end of 2024 across Indian cities. Blinkit has become a strong driver of Zomato’s overall valuation.
Current Business and Market Position
As of 2025, Zomato is among the most valued companies in the country, with a market capitalisation of over Rs 2 lakh crore. It does business across over 1,000 cities in India and has tied up with over 200,000 restaurants on its platform. There are close to 300,000 active delivery partners who work with Zomato, earning a livelihood by delivering food items and groceries to its customers.
The biggest success came in 2024 when Zomato announced its maiden full-year profit. The company, which had been incurring losses for over 15 years, finally earned more than it spent. This was a huge milestone that proved the business model actually works. Deepinder Goyal, despite being worth Rs 12,000 crore, continues to remain deeply involved in running the company and is known for working long hours.
Leadership Style and Philosophy
The success of Zomato has created an impact much beyond the financial return to its investors. This platform provides employment and earning opportunities to more than 300,000 delivery partners across India. Most of these delivery partners come from small towns and villages in search of better opportunities in cities, and Zomato provides them with an opportunity to earn a decent livelihood without requiring high educational qualifications.
Zomato has benefited restaurants, especially small and medium-sized ones, greatly, since earlier only big restaurants, which could afford to advertise, got customers. Now, a small restaurant situated in some random lane can also make its presence known to thousands of potential customers through the platform itself. In fact, during the COVID-19 pandemic, many restaurant owners credited Zomato for keeping their businesses alive with delivery orders at times when dine-in was completely shut.
Lessons to Learn
Deepinder’s story gives lessons to any budding entrepreneur. The first lesson is that failure is often not the end but the beginning. When Foodlet did not work, he could have gone back to his comfortable job at Bain, but instead, he chose to learn from the mistakes and try again with a better approach.
The second lesson is on patience and long-term thinking. In fact, it took upwards of 15 years for Zomato to become profitable, which really does call for tremendous patience and belief in what you are building. The third lesson is on calculated risk-taking: going international early, entering food delivery, or the Blinkit acquisition. Each seemed a risky decision at that time, but was based on clear thinking on where the market was headed.
What Comes Next
Zomato is not done growing yet, because the company is still aggressively expanding Blinkit and is testing new services. Deepinder has said he aims to make Zomato the most customer-obsessed company in India, which is an audacious target. The food and delivery business continues to evolve with newer technologies and changing customer preferences.
On a personal note, Deepinder is more concerned with building the company rather than enjoying his wealth. Even after Rs 12,000 crore, he is still working long hours and stays deeply involved in company operations. It is this founder mentality that will keep Zomato competitive in a very tough market with strong competitors like Swiggy pushing for market share.
FAQs
- How much is Deepinder Goyal worth?
Net worth: Around Rs 12,000 crore or $1.5 billion as of 2025, based on his Zomato shares.
- When did Zomato start making a profit?
2024 marked the first whole year that Zomato made a profit after many years of losses.
- How much is Zomato worth today?
The total value of Zomato on the stock market has reached over Rs 2 lakh crore right now.
- Why did Foodlet fail while Zomato worked?
Foodlet has bad branding and an unclear purpose, while Zomato has a better name and clearer focus. How did Zomato get so big? First, it listed restaurants, then food delivery, expanded internationally, and finally acquired Blinkit to deliver groceries.
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