Editor’s Note:

As we bid adieu to 2025, for the next few weeks, The Outline by Inc42 will look back at the hits and misses of India’s top tech startups and trends this year. Here’s the first special edition as part of our 2025 In Review series.

Deepinder Goyal was at his philosophical best when he announced the rebranding of Zomato to Eternal. “Eternal is a powerful name and, to be honest, it scares me to my core. It is a tall order to live up to. Because ‘Eternal’ carries both a promise and paradox,” he wrote to shareholders in February.

The chief executive’s philosophical self was known, but the unknown and unseen in India’s public markets was the decision of a listed company rebranding itself entirely – not just its logo or tagline – but its legal name and the exchange tickers. Zomato Limited became Eternal Limited, and the scrip changed accordingly.

This was more than a cosmetic overhaul – it was rather a declaration of intent. For Goyal, the Zomato identity had become too narrow, too synonymous with a single business line, and too limiting for the company’s ambitions. Eternal, in contrast, represents a portfolio of businesses, comprising the old food delivery engine, the fast-scaling quick commerce venture Blinkit and the going-out ecosystem bundled under District.

The year 2025 was the acid test to review how grounded the shift has been with the business fundamentals. As the year winds down, a look back shows a company aggressively trying to fire on three cylinders, instead of relying on just the core business. The company’s market capitalisation scaled 48% during the year to INR 2.87 Lakh Cr ($31.8 Bn).

But, was the new identity in sync with the company’s evolution this year? Let’s dig deep into the dynamics of the three businesses.

Blinkit: A Bet Beyond The Core Pays Off

Blinkit is the clearest justification for why Zomato needed to become Eternal. The acquisition of Grofers two years back, followed by rebranding to Blinkit, was considered overpriced, unnecessary, and strategically confusing. The stock slumped 20% after the deal, and analysts widely questioned the logic of entering quick commerce at scale.

By FY25, Blinkit not only vindicated the acquisition, it fundamentally reshaped Etnernal’s growth trajectory. “We thought we would rename the company to Eternal the day something beyond Zomato became a significant driver of our future. Today, with Blinkit, I feel we are there,” Goyal wrote in the letter.

The FY25 numbers backed his sentiment. Blinkit’s revenue surged 600% in less than a year — from INR 1,399 Cr in Q3 FY25 to INR........

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