In 2022, when Zomato acquired the struggling Blinkit for ₹4,447 crore, Deepinder Goyal faced considerable scepticism. Four years later, Blinkit has grown to 2,751 stores and become one of Eternal’s biggest growth drivers. But Goyal’s record has its failures too. Zomato Legends, which delivered famous dishes across cities, shut down after two years. Zomato Everyday, its home-style meal service, met a similar fate. Goyal has never been afraid to experiment, but not every experiment has found enough paying customers.

His latest experiment takes Eternal into an entirely different industry. Dark.ai, expected to launch globally by the end of 2026, is an AI assistant promising private conversations that even Eternal cannot read. It will use open-weight AI models running on the company's infrastructure, encrypted memory and systems designed to give users accurate answers rather than simply agree with them.

The idea comes from a genuine problem. People increasingly use ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini for work, research, finances and personal questions. Yet a founder discussing an acquisition, a scientist working on unpublished research or a lawyer examining confidential documents may hesitate before sharing sensitive information. Disabling model training does not necessarily mean the AI provider cannot access or retain conversations. Goyal believes users will share more information, and get more useful answers, if they know their conversations are truly private.

There is a market for this, but Goyal is hardly the first to identify it. Swiss privacy company Proton launched its Lumo AI assistant in July 2025, with a paid plan currently priced at $9.99 per month on annual billing. Venice AI introduced verifiable encrypted AI processing in March 2026. Duck.ai also offers private access to several AI models. Dark will therefore enter a market with established competitors, not create an entirely new category.

Its biggest challenge will be proving the privacy promise. An AI model needs to process the contents of a conversation to answer questions. Encryption protects information during transmission and storage, but protecting it while the model processes it requires additional technology. Dark has not disclosed enough technical detail for outsiders to verify its claims.

The second challenge is quality. An assistant that refuses to flatter users sounds attractive, particularly for founders who need their assumptions challenged. But disagreeing with someone does not automatically make an AI more accurate. Dark will have to demonstrate that its models can match leading competitors in reasoning, research and everyday usefulness.

Then comes the economics. At an illustrative $15 monthly subscription, 100,000 paying customers would generate $18 million in annual revenue. That sounds promising until computing costs enter the picture. Character.AI, despite attracting more than 200 million users during its rise, struggled with reported monthly computing costs of $10 million against peak subscription revenue of $2.8 million. AI usage can grow much faster than the money customers pay for it.

For Dark, the strongest opportunity may therefore lie with professionals and research teams willing to pay for confidentiality rather than mass-market consumers accustomed to free AI tools. Even then, privacy alone will not keep customers subscribed if better answers are available elsewhere.

Let’s go through what else is happening in Indian startup world - Grab your simmering cup of StartupChai.in and unwind with our hand-brewed memes.

Eternal has unveiled Dark, a privacy-focused AI platform, with founder Deepinder Goyal targeting a global launch by end of this year.

Built for sensitive work, it offers encrypted conversations and memory.

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SBI has flagged 3,897 customer records containing personal information on the dark web after analysing around 3.75 Lakh records.

The bank has activated its incident-response protocols and hired a CERT-In-empanelled cybersecurity agency.

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OpenAI and Karmayogi Bharat have signed an MoU to make approved OpenAI Academy learning resources available through the government's iGOT Karmayogi platform.

The programme will support practical AI capacity-building for personnel across central and state administrations.

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Jio Platforms' Rs 30,213 Cr IPO ended its first day 3.15 times subscribed, with bids for 62.3 Cr shares against 19.75 Cr on offer.

The QIB portion was booked 9.42 times, while the NII quota reached 1.68 times and retail demand stood at 72%.

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Girikon.AI has developed Koyal, a voice AI model designed to handle pronunciation, tone, language nuances and conversational context across applications.

The company is positioning it for enterprise use cases such as customer service, sales and support.

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Fynd has entered manufacturing technology with Forge, an AI-enabled manufacturing execution system already running at NeoLync's Tirupati electronics plant.

The platform manages more than 100 stations, nearly 90 process stages and 160 concurrent operators per shift.

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Eternal will swap its entire AdOnMo stake for shares in Mygate ahead of their proposed merger.

The deal could give Eternal a 4.4% stake in the merged entity, valued at ₹156 Cr.

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MSME lending platform Vegafin Capital has raised Rs 1,000 Cr from Premji Invest, Norwest Venture Partners and Lok Capital. It has entered definitive agreements to acquire a majority stake in Gurugram-based NBFC Bizloan.

Bizloan operates more than 35 branches across five states and manages Rs 235 Cr in assets.

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YatriKart has announced a Rs 120 Cr partnership with MMG Group to establish 1,000 Quick Stop convenience stores over five years.

The first phase targets 100 stores across Delhi NCR at fuel stations, highways, bus stands and transit hubs.

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boAt has entered Sri Lanka and Bhutan with personal-audio products, smartwatches and charging solutions. The markets add to its existing presence across Southeast Asia and the Gulf region.

International revenue more than doubled in FY26, while the wearables business turned profitable and charging products supported growth beyond audio.

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