Deepinder Goyal's Temple raises USD 54 mn in first funding round

New Delhi, Feb 27 (PTI) Zomato Founder Deepinder Goyal on Friday said his health tech startup Temple -- which is developing a wearable device for elite performance athletes -- has raised USD 54 million in its first funding round from friends and family.

The funding round values Temple at USD 190 million after the transaction, Goyal shared in a post on X.

The announcement came hours after Goyal's unconventional recruitment post for Temple seeking "athletes who are also engineers and scientists" and specifying an eligibility criteria of less than 16 per cent body fat for men and less than 26 per cent for women created a buzz online and left netizens amused.

Goyal resigned as the Managing Director and Group CEO of Eternal -- parent entity of Zomato and Blinkit -- last month to pursue what he termed "new ideas that involve significantly higher-risk exploration and experimentation". He was appointed as the Vice Chairman of Eternal.

Taking to X, Goyal said, "Temple has raised its first round. Friends and family. $54m. Post-money valuation of ~$190m.

Every investor in this round is a founder friend or early-stage Zomato investor who wanted in, whether or not Temple ever makes it to market".

"But here's what gives me goosebumps -- more than 30 Temple employees participated in the round, at par valuation. No discount. Their own money. That's the kind of belief you can't buy," he stated.

Earlier in the day, Goyal shared he is recruiting for various roles from Analog Systems Engineers to Computational Neuroscientists and others, as Temple is building the "ultimate wearable for elite performance athletes".

"Important - we are building for people who push their bodies to the edge. We want to be those people, not just serve them. So only people who take fitness seriously, and have body fat 16% (men) and 26% (women) should apply. If you're not there yet but will commit to getting there in three months, you can apply too; but you'll be on probation until you are," Goyal stated. PTI RSN HVA