Is Zomato Indian? Inside Eternal Limited's Ownership After the Big Rebrand

Zomato is one of the most debated brands in Indian startup history. Founded by two Indians, scaled entirely on Indian appetite, listed on Indian exchanges — and yet consistently questioned for how "Indian" it really is. In 2025, the company rebranded itself as Eternal Limited, a name meant to reflect a broader portfolio beyond food delivery. The ownership question remains just as relevant.

The short answer, unusually for this platform: Zomato is Indian-controlled. But the full picture is more layered than that verdict suggests.

The founding

Zomato was founded in 2008 by Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah — both IIT Delhi alumni — as Foodiebay, a restaurant discovery platform. It was renamed Zomato in 2010 and expanded aggressively across India and internationally. The business was funded almost entirely by foreign venture capital: Sequoia Capital, Info Edge India, Ant Financial (Alibaba's payments arm), Tiger Global, and others.

By the time it listed in July 2021, Zomato had raised over $3 billion in private funding. Nearly all of it was foreign capital.

The IPO and current ownership structure

Zomato listed on BSE and NSE in July 2021 at a market cap of approximately ₹64,365 crore — one of India's largest tech IPOs at the time. The listing brought in a new layer of Indian retail investors and domestic institutional investors.

The ownership structure as of 2025–2026 (approximate):

• Deepinder Goyal (Founder & CEO) — approximately 4–5% direct holding, with additional ESOP allocations. Largest individual Indian stakeholder.
• Info Edge India Ltd. — the Indian internet company (Naukri.com parent) that was Zomato's earliest institutional backer. Holds approximately 13–15%. Info Edge is an Indian-listed, Indian-controlled company — this is genuine Indian institutional ownership.
• Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) — collectively hold the largest share of Zomato's float: US mutual funds, hedge funds, sovereign wealth funds, and global pension funds. No single FII holds a controlling stake, but collectively they own a substantial majority of the freely traded shares.
• Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs) — Indian mutual funds (HDFC, SBI, Mirae, etc.) and insurance companies (LIC) have increased their holdings significantly as Zomato's stock recovered from its post-IPO lows.

The Ant Financial exit

Ant Financial (Alibaba's payments affiliate, Chinese) was once one of Zomato's largest shareholders, having led multiple pre-IPO funding rounds. This made Zomato's "Indian" status controversial — Chinese money with significant stakes raised geopolitical questions, especially post-2020 border tensions.

Between 2021 and 2023, Ant Financial systematically sold down its entire Zomato stake through open market transactions. By 2024, Ant had fully exited. This removed the most significant foreign-controlled block from Zomato's cap table.

The Eternal rebrand (2025)

In early 2025, Zomato Limited changed its corporate name to Eternal Limited, reflecting its expansion into quick commerce (Blinkit), going-out (District), and hyperpure B2B food supply. The Zomato food delivery app kept its name, but the listed holding company is now Eternal.

The rebrand did not change the ownership structure. Deepinder Goyal remains founder-CEO; Info Edge remains the largest Indian institutional holder; FIIs collectively dominate the float.

How this compares to Swiggy

Zomato's main competitor Swiggy (listed November 2024) has Prosus N.V. — a Dutch company — as its single largest external shareholder with approximately 25–28% post-IPO. No equivalent foreign entity holds that concentration in Zomato. This makes Zomato meaningfully more Indian in ownership distribution than Swiggy, even though both have significant FII holdings.

The verdict

Zomato (Eternal Limited) is Indian-controlled — no single foreign entity holds a controlling stake, the founder is Indian and operationally in charge, and Info Edge (Indian) is the largest institutional backer. The collective FII ownership of the float is large, but dispersed across hundreds of funds with no coordinated control.

This makes Zomato one of the few large Indian consumer tech companies that genuinely qualifies as Indian-controlled on the Switch To India ownership framework — alongside Nykaa, Paytm (post-Ant exit), and Dream11.

When you pay a delivery fee on Zomato, the platform margin benefits a company whose controlling interest is Indian. That distinguishes it from Swiggy, Myntra, or Amazon India — all of which are foreign-majority-controlled.

Explore Indian-owned and foreign-owned brands across all categories on the Switch To India platform.