Key Highlights:

• Deepinder Goyal returns to startup building with a $54 million raise for wearable startup Temple.
• The friends-and-family round values Temple at about $190 million post-money.
• Temple is building a temple-mounted wearable to track cerebral blood flow in elite athletes.
• The move follows Goyal’s exit as CEO of Zomato and Eternal earlier this year.

Indian entrepreneur Deepinder Goyal is back in the startup spotlight. Weeks after stepping down as CEO of Zomato and its parent Eternal, Goyal has led a $54 million funding round for Temple, a new wearable technology startup focused on elite athletic performance.

The funding values Temple at around $190 million post-money. Goyal confirmed the raise in a post on X, calling it part of his shift toward “higher-risk exploration and experimentation.”

Who backed the $54 million Temple funding round?

The round was structured as a friends-and-family raise, but the investor list reads like a who’s who of India’s startup ecosystem.

Goyal is leading the round, followed by Steadview Capital, according to regulatory filings reviewed by TechCrunch. Other participants include Peak XV Partners, InfoEdge Ventures, and Dharana Capital.

Several prominent founders also joined as angel investors. These include Vijay Shekhar Sharma of Paytm, Kunal Shah of CRED, and Zerodha founders Nithin Kamath and Nikhil Kamath. Current and former Eternal executives also invested, with over 30 Temple employees participating at the same valuation, according to Goyal.

Why did Deepinder Goyal step down from Zomato?

Goyal stepped down as chief executive of Zomato and Eternal in January, handing over leadership to Albinder Dhindsa, who previously led quick-commerce unit Blinkit.

The decision marked a significant shift. Goyal had spent nearly two decades building Zomato after co-founding the company in 2008. Under his leadership, Zomato expanded aggressively through acquisitions, including Uber Eats India in 2020 and Blinkit, formerly Grofers, in 2022.

His exit signaled a transition from operational leadership to founder-led experimentation across new technology frontiers.

What exactly is Temple building?

Temple is developing a high-performance wearable aimed squarely at elite performance athletes. Unlike wrist-based or ring-based devices, Temple’s sensor is designed to sit on the wearer’s temple.

During a January conversation with podcaster Raj Shamani, Goyal explained that the device tracks cerebral blood flow continuously. He later said Temple aims to measure physiological signals that existing wearables cannot capture.

In a separate post on X, Goyal described Temple’s ambition as building “the ultimate wearable for elite performance athletes,” while outlining a hiring push across embedded systems, computational neuroscience, and brain-computer interface engineering.

How crowded is the wearable market Temple is entering?

Temple enters a highly competitive and well-funded wearables space. Companies like Whoop, Oura, and Garmin have spent years refining products focused on sleep, recovery, and performance metrics.

Temple’s bet is that brain-level physiological data offers a meaningful differentiation. Whether this approach can scale beyond elite athletes remains an open question.

How does Temple fit into Goyal’s broader investment shift?

Temple is not an isolated bet. In October 2025, Goyal committed $25 million of his own capital to Continue Research, a venture exploring human lifespan extension. He is also a co-founder of LAT Aerospace, which recently expanded into defense technology after acquiring early-stage firm Sharang Shakti.

Earlier, Goyal backed Ultrahuman, an India-based smart ring maker competing with Oura. Together, these investments point to a growing focus on health, performance, and frontier technology.

What happens next for Temple?

Temple remains in its early stages. Product timelines, commercial availability, and regulatory pathways are still unclear. Goyal declined to comment further on the startup.

Still, the $54 million raise positions Temple among the most well-capitalized early-stage wearable startups in India. For Deepinder Goyal, it marks a clear move away from food delivery and toward high-risk, high-technology experimentation—with Temple emerging as the most visible expression of that shift so far.

Conclusion

With Temple’s $54 million raise, Deepinder Goyal is signaling a decisive pivot. After nearly twenty years building Zomato, he is now placing large bets on experimental technology, elite performance science, and long-term innovation. Whether Temple delivers on its ambitious promises will shape the next chapter of Goyal’s entrepreneurial journey.