Deepinder Goyal surrenders ESOPs worth up to Rs 1,000 crore after exiting Eternal

GURUGRAM: Deepinder Goyal is making an expensive exit. The Eternal founder announced on January 21st that he will step down as group chief executive, hand the reins to Albinder Dhindsa, and forfeit all his unvested employee stock options—surrendering a potentially massive payday to bet on riskier ventures outside the company.

The ESOP sacrifice is the real story. Rather than cashing in after eighteen years building Eternal from a menu-scanning startup into a multibillion-dollar behemoth, Goyal is reverting his unvested stock to the pool, surrendering employee stock options valued at approximately Rs 900–1,000 crore, according to disclosures made to shareholders and analysts. At Eternal’s prevailing share price of about Rs 278, the 3.3 crore shares are valued at roughly Rs 917 crore. The move creates “meaningful wealth-creation opportunities” for the next generation of leaders whilst strengthening retention, all without diluting existing shareholders. It’s a gesture that puts serious money where his mouth is.

His financial future remains “meaningfully tied” to Eternal through his existing holdings. Goyal continues to hold about a 4 per cent stake in Eternal, valued at approximately Rs 11,000 crore, keeping incentives aligned with long-term shareholder value. But the unvested options represent a sizeable chunk of potential wealth he’s choosing to leave on the table.

Why walk away now? Goyal has been drawn to ideas demanding “significantly higher-risk exploration and experimentation”, ventures that don’t belong inside a listed company. If they fitted Eternal’s strategic scope, he would have pursued them internally. They don’t. India’s regulatory environment for public company chiefs demands singular focus, he wrote to shareholders, even though he believes he has the bandwidth to juggle both worlds.

The transition, pending shareholder approval, shifts Goyal to vice chairman whilst Dhindsa takes charge of day-to-day execution, operating priorities and business decisions. Dhindsa steered Blinkit from acquisition to break-even, building the team, culture and supply chain. Goyal credits him with “the DNA of a battle-hardened founder” and execution ability that “far exceeds mine”. Blinkit remains Eternal’s fastest growth opportunity and Dhindsa’s top priority.

Nearly everything else stays intact. Goyal, Dhindsa and co-founder Akshant Goyal will work as closely as ever. Business unit chiefs retain full autonomy. Goyal remains involved in long-term strategy, culture, leadership development, ethics and governance—areas where he has been concentrating lately anyway.

The ambitions haven’t dimmed. Goyal still wants Eternal to become India’s most valuable company, serve a billion customers and provide livelihoods for millions. Eighteen years ago, the notion that a menu-scanning company could be worth tens of billions of dollars and serve millions of families daily would have seemed absurd. “We helped prove it was possible,” he wrote.

He believes the transition reinforces institutional strength rather than diluting momentum. Eternal gets sharper execution and a leadership pipeline flush with stock options. He gets freedom to chase moonshots. “This is a change in title, not in commitment towards outcomes,” Goyal wrote. “Eternal remains my life’s work.”

Whether surrendering unvested stock proves shrewd or costly depends entirely on what Goyal builds next—and whether Eternal keeps soaring without him at the controls.