How ‘Tomato’ Became ‘Zomato’: CEO Deepinder Goyal Shares Story Behind Company’s Name

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New Delhi: What if, instead of “Zomato,” we all ordered from “Tomato”? Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal recently shared this fun twist in the company’s backstory. Originally, “Tomato” was the name he had in mind, but a domain snag meant he had to improvise—giving us the unique name we know today!

Goyal shared this story during his recent appearance with his wife , Gia Goyal on the popular comedy show The Great Indian Kapil Show. The episode also featured Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy and his wife, Sudha Murthy, a Rajya Sabha member.

The Netflix show, hosted by Kapil Sharma recently featured Deepinder Goyal, where Sharma playfully questioned him about the name “Zomato.” He joked, “We’ve heard of potato, tomato, but what is the meaning of Zomato?” adding with a laugh, “I saw an ad where cricketers Harbhajan Singh and Sreesanth argue, saying it’s ‘Zomato’ or ‘Zomaato’. So, what’s the real story? Where did the name come from?”

To this Deepinder explained smiling, “This ‘tomato’ or ‘tomaato,’ however you want to say it—we originally wanted that as the dot com. We aimed for ‘tomato dot com,’ but couldn’t get the domain,” he shared. “So, we just switched a letter and got Zomato dot com instead.”

Deepinder and Grecia’s Love Story

During the show, Goyal also shared the story of how he met his wife, Grecia Munoz. When Kapil asked about their love story, Goyal recalled, “I was single for a long time. My friends would often set me up on dates but always told me not to take things too seriously. Then, when Grecia came to Delhi, a friend called me and said, 'There’s a girl here you must meet,' adding, 'You’ll end up marrying her.' It was funny because he was usually the one advising me not to settle down. I met her, and the rest, as they say, is history.”

Romantic Messages Turned Into Marketing Ideas

Deepinder also revealed a fun behind-the-scenes detail about Zomato’s marketing. He said with a laugh, “Sometimes, my romantic messages to Gia inspire the app’s notifications.” He went on to add, “I give full credit to our marketing team, who took my idea of ‘building a relationship with the customer’ a bit too seriously!”