Deepinder Goyal’s next big bets: $1,000 forehead wearable, $20 mn aviation investment after Zomato

Deepinder Goyal, who turned Zomato into one of India’s biggest consumer tech success stories, is now turning his attention to wearable technology.

Goyal plans to launch a bean-shaped wearable device called Temple in the next 6 months to 1 year. He says that the wearable device, which takes its name from where it is worn (near the forehead), is designed to monitor the body’s metabolic status in real time.

“We’re going to launch this as a wellness device, with peer-reviewed studies and everything,” Goyal, 43, said. Bloomberg. It will be the first commercial product of his new venture.

How does the temple work?

Explaining how the device was developed, the entrepreneur said, “What started as a personal science project to understand brain blood flow led his team to discover a new biomarker called entropy.” he said.

This measurement is linked to the body’s metabolic rate and can provide information about stress, meditation, recovery, sleep and exercise by tracking changes in the body’s condition. However, the science behind this has not yet been verified by independent scientists.

Temple will be available for around $1,000 and is aimed primarily at high-performance individuals such as athletes, executives and founders rather than mass-market consumers.

“I’m not building the Temple for everyone. In fact, I’m only building it for myself,” he said. “Work is a side effect of what we do for ourselves.”

While Temple is entering the crowded market of wearable devices, including watches and rings that track a variety of fitness metrics, Goyal notes that these products rely on heart rate as an indicator of what the body is actually doing, while Temple directly measures metabolic rate.

“Heart rate was supposed to be an indicator of metabolic rate. We found the truth,” he said. The device has not yet received medical regulatory approval.

Goyal invested $20 million in aviation

Beyond Temple, Goyal is also backing LAT Aerospace with a personal investment of $20 million, the Economic Times reported in March last year.

LAT Aerospace is an aviation startup that aims to reduce traffic at India’s busy airports by producing low-cost aircraft that can take off and land on short runways. It wants to create a network of small eight-seater planes connecting smaller airstrips, making it easier for people to travel directly between cities, towns and villages without going through major airports.

“This is a very difficult project. I have a 0.1% expectation that it will work,” he said, citing engineering, regulatory and infrastructure challenges. Still, he believes such a network could help spread economic activity beyond India’s largest urban centres.

The long-term ambition goes beyond both ventures. Goyal said he wants Eternal, formerly known as Zomato, to constantly reinvent itself rather than be defined by its current business.

“The purpose of Eternal is to ensure that DNA continues to evolve,” he said. “The moment you think you’ve achieved this, you’re dead.”

Deepinder Goyal co-founded Zomato, which was launched as Foodiebay in 2008 and rebranded and expanded to food delivery in 2010. The company went public in 2021 and acquired Grofers (later renamed Blinkit) in 2022.

and was rebranded as Eternal last year. Goyal recently resigned as CEO of Eternal, which encompasses businesses such as food delivery, express commerce and event ticketing. He has a net worth of about $1.3 billion, largely from his shares in the company, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Goyal co-founded Zomato as Foodiebay, a restaurant discovery platform that digitizes menus and captures reviews. It was rebranded as Zomato in 2010 and later expanded into food delivery as well. It opened to the public in 2021. A year later, Zomato acquired online grocer Grofers, which was renamed Blinkit. The band’s name was changed to Eternal last year.

Goyal resigned as CEO of Eternal in February. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, his net worth currently stands at $1.3 billion, mainly from his shares in Eternal.