Middle-class roots to billionaire club: Story of Zomato's Deepinder Goyal
Deepinder Goyal, the founder of Zomato, has an inspiring journey from a middle-class background to leading a global food delivery brand and entering the billionaire club. Born on January 26, 1983 in Muktsar, Punjab, Goyal's passion for food inspired him to create a platform that simplified ordering meals. Goyal also has a love for poetry and books. He has even published a book titled CULTure at Zomato : How to Rewire Your Brain for Greatness, discussing ideal workspace culture.
Goyal's educational background and early career
Goyal did his schooling at DAV College, Chandigarh and graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi in 2005 with an integrated master's degree in mathematics and computing. He joined Bain and Company as a Senior Associate Consultant in 2006. It was during this time that he observed the difficulties people faced when ordering food due to insufficient online information about restaurants, which led him to create Foodiebay.com.
The birth and expansion of Zomato
In 2008, Goyal and his Bain colleague Pankaj Chaddah co-founded Foodiebay, which became the largest restaurant directory in Delhi NCR within nine months. The company was rebranded as Zomato in 2009 and began expanding globally to countries including South Africa, Canada, UAE, and New Zealand. By 2012, it had extended its services to Sri Lanka, UAE, Qatar, South Africa, UK, Philippines with New Zealand, Turkey and Brazil added in 2013.
Zomato's technological advancements and acquisitions
Zomato enhanced its tech backbone to keep pace with the smartphone trend and launched its app. The company began acquiring foreign competition to increase its global presence, including Poland's restaurant search service Gastronauci and Italian restaurant finder Cubano in 2014. In 2015, Zomato made its largest acquisition with US-based online table reservation platform NexTable. In 2021, Zomato became India's first unicorn to go public. The stock has seen an impressive surge of over 300% since July 2023.
Goyal's net worth and personal investments
Goyal's current net worth is upwards of ₹8,300 crore, giving him a billionaire status. He holds a 4.24% stake in Zomato equivalent to about 36.95 crore shares. He is also a judge at Shark Tank India and has invested in various startups including Bira 91, HyperTrack, TerraDo, and Squad Strack. His assets include a 5-acre land in Delhi's Dera Mandi village worth ₹79 crore and several high-end cars such as a Ferrari Roma (₹4.5cr) and Aston Martin DB12 (₹4.6cr).
Goyal's personal life and relationships
In 2007, Goyal married Kanchan Joshi, whom he met while studying at IIT-Delhi. "I chased her (Joshi) for six months," he had once revealed in an interview with Forbes India. In 2013, they became parents to a daughter named Sitara. Joshi currently works as a Mathematics professor at Delhi University. After separating from Joshi a few year ago, Goyal married Mexican model and entrepreneur Grecia Munoz. Munoz now resides in India and runs her startup focusing on luxury consumer products.
