Deepinder Goyal’s $54M Bet on Brain-Monitoring Tech
▼ Summary
– Deepinder Goyal, former Zomato CEO, has raised $54 million for his new wearable startup, Temple, at a $190 million valuation.
– Temple is developing a high-performance wearable sensor for elite athletes, designed to track cerebral blood flow from the temple.
– The startup aims to measure unique performance metrics with unprecedented precision, requiring expertise in embedded systems and neuroscience.
– Temple enters a competitive wearables market against established players like Whoop and Oura, with its differentiation still unproven.
– This venture is part of Goyal’s broader shift towards high-risk tech exploration, including investments in longevity research and aerospace.
Indian entrepreneur Deepinder Goyal has made a significant $54 million investment in Temple, a new wearable technology startup, signaling a bold pivot towards high-risk ventures following his recent departure from Zomato. This friends-and-family funding round, which included contributions from early Zomato backers and over thirty employees, values the fledgling company at approximately $190 million. The move underscores Goyal’s stated intention to shift his focus toward ambitious technological exploration after nearly two decades leading the food delivery giant.
Goyal stepped down from his CEO roles at Zomato and its parent company, Eternal, in January, passing leadership to Albinder Dhindsa. This transition allows him to dedicate his efforts to new projects like Temple, which is squarely aimed at the elite athletic performance market. The startup’s core mission is to develop an advanced wearable device designed to monitor cerebral blood flow from a sensor positioned on the wearer’s temple. Goyal has publicly described this as building “the ultimate wearable for elite performance athletes,” capable of measuring biometrics with a precision he claims is currently unavailable.
The company is now embarking on an aggressive hiring campaign, seeking talent in specialized fields such as embedded systems, computational neuroscience, and brain-computer interface engineering. This technical foundation is critical for Temple’s goal to stand out in a competitive wearables sector dominated by established players like Whoop, Oura, and Garmin. These companies have long offered devices that track sleep, recovery, and fitness, making meaningful technological differentiation a key challenge for the new entrant.
This investment in Temple is part of a broader strategic shift in Goyal’s portfolio. In late 2025, he personally committed $25 million to Continue Research, a venture exploring human lifespan extension. He is also a co-founder of LAT Aerospace, an aviation startup that recently moved into defense technology through an acquisition. Goyal’s prior investments include backing health-tech firms like Ultrahuman, an Indian wearable maker, highlighting his sustained interest in the intersection of health, performance, and technology.
Goyal built his reputation by co-founding Zomato with Pankaj Chaddah in 2008, growing it into a dominant Indian food delivery platform through strategic acquisitions, such as Uber Eats’ India business and the grocery delivery service Blinkit. Chaddah left the company in 2018, and Goyal’s own executive departure earlier this year marks a definitive new chapter. With Temple, he is betting on a niche but potentially revolutionary area of biometric monitoring, placing a substantial financial and reputational wager on the future of brain-sensing technology for peak athletic performance.
(Source: TechCrunch)
