Zomato's parent, Eternal, spun off its AI platform, Nugget, after it hit ₹7.2 Cr revenue in FY26. The 1.5-year-old internal tool, built to solve Zomato's problems, now counts rival Swiggy among its enterprise clients. Eternal now competes directly against SaaS players looking to productize AI for large Indian enterprises.
How We Got Here
Nugget began as an internal project 1.5 years ago to address Zomato's customer support and sales issues. Paytm and Razorpay have also recently packaged their in-house AI capabilities into standalone enterprise software businesses.
The Numbers
- Nugget operates cash-flow positive, closing one enterprise deal per week on average with zero marketing spend.
- The platform was spun out into Carthero Technologies Private Limited (CTPL) via a slump sale for ₹35 Cr.
- Dushyant Garg heads Nugget, stating the technology matured beyond solving Eternal's internal problems.
- Nugget offers conversational AI, voice agents, and workflow automation to sectors like banking, insurance, and D2C.
- Eternal first disclosed Nugget's FY26 revenue in its Q1 FY27 shareholder letter, a drop in Eternal's ₹20,211 Cr group revenue.
What Happens Next
🇮🇳 Why This Matters for India
For product managers and founders in Bangalore and Hyderabad, Nugget's success validates the strategy of building deep tech solutions for large, underserved enterprise segments.
The Take
The real story here is the sheer scale of operational complexity at India's consumer giants; battle-hardened internal tech often wins over generic SaaS, giving Nugget a significant edge. This puts pressure on pure-play enterprise AI startups, who now face competition from well-capitalized, 'internal-first' rivals.
Source:
Inc42 ↗