After Zomato, Deepinder Goyal returns with a $54M brain-monitoring bet

Weeks after stepping down as CEO from food delivery service Zomato and its parent Eternal, Indian entrepreneur Deepinder Goyal is back with a $54 million raise for wearable startup Temple, part of what the 43-year-old earlier described as a shift toward “higher-risk exploration and experimentation.”

On Friday, Goyal said in a post on X that Temple had raised funds in a friends-and-family round from founder friends and early Zomato backers, at a post-money valuation of about $190 million. More than 30 employees participated at the same valuation, he said.

Goyal is leading the funding round, followed by Steadview Capital, according to regulatory filings reviewed by TechCrunch. Other investors include Peak XV Partners, InfoEdge Ventures, and Dharana Capital, alongside angel investors such as Vijay Shekhar Sharma of Paytm, Kunal Shah of CRED, Nithin Kamath and Nikhil Kamath of Zerodha, as well as current and former Eternal executives including Akshant Goyal, Aditya Mangla, Kunal Swarup, Akriti Chopra, and Rahul Ganjoo.

Goyal stepped down as chief executive of Zomato and its parent, Eternal, in January, handing the role to Albinder Dhindsa, who leads the quick-commerce unit Blinkit. The move marked a major transition for Goyal after nearly two decades at the helm of the food delivery company he co-founded in 2008.

Temple is one of the clearest expressions yet of that shift. The startup is focused on building a high-performance wearable for elite athletes, an area Goyal has described as ripe for deeper technological innovation.

During a January conversation with podcaster Raj Shamani, Goyal described Temple’s wearable as a sensor designed to sit on the wearer’s temple and continuously track cerebral blood flow.

In a separate post on X earlier Friday, he said Temple aims to build what he called “the ultimate wearable for elite performance athletes,” claiming the device would measure metrics that existing wearables cannot. He also outlined an expansive hiring push spanning embedded systems, computational neuroscience, and brain-computer interface engineering.

The startup is entering an increasingly crowded and well-funded wearables market, where companies such as Whoop, Oura, and Garmin have spent years refining devices that track sleep, recovery, and athletic performance. Whether Temple can meaningfully differentiate its technology remains an open question.

The push into Temple is part of a broader shift in Goyal’s investment focus. In October 2025, he said he had committed $25 million of his own capital to another new venture, Continue Research, which is exploring ways to extend human lifespan. He is also a co-founder of aviation startup LAT Aerospace, which recently expanded into defense technology with the acquisition of early-stage firm Sharang Shakti.

Goyal built his reputation at Zomato, which he co-founded with Pankaj Chaddah and spent nearly two decades building into one of India’s largest food delivery platforms before stepping down as chief executive earlier this year.

Chaddah exited the company in 2018, as Zomato continued to consolidate its position through acquisitions, including the purchase of Uber Eats’ India business in 2020 and grocery delivery platform Blinkit — then known as Grofers — for $568 million in 2022.

Before Temple, Goyal had also backed health and fitness startups, including Ultrahuman, an India-based wearable maker that competes with Oura’s smart ring, underscoring his growing focus on performance and health technology.

Goyal declined to comment further on Temple.