India, Feb. 27 -- Deepinder Goyal's startup Temple has raised $54 million in its first round of funding from "friends and family", and started hiring as well.

"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," Goyal, who co-founded what is now Eternal Ltd., wrote on X. "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."

This is a developing story. More to come.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Hindustan Times....