Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal To Donate Around Rs 700 Crores For Education Of Delivery Partners' Kids

Founder and CEO of online food delivery platform Zomato, Deepinder Goyal, is set to donate approximately nearly ₹700 crores (USD 90 million) from vested ESOPs to Zomato Future Foundation to assist fund the education of kids of its delivery partners.

In an internal memo conveyed amongst the employees of the company, Goyal stated right before Zomato went public, he had been granted a few ESOPs (Employee Stock Ownership Plan) by the board and investors based on his past performance, and some of the ESOPs vested the previous month as there is minimum one-year vesting required according to law.

"At the average share price over the last month, these ESOPs are worth (around) USD 90 million (around ₹700 crore)," Hindustan Times quoted Deepinder Goyal as saying.

ZFF To Cover Education Of Up To Two Kids Of All Their Delivery Partners

Revealing his plans to make use of the ESOPs, Goyal stated, "I am donating all the proceeds from these ESOPs (net of taxes) towards the Zomato Future Foundation (ZFF). The ZFF will cover the education of up to two children of all Zomato delivery partners, up to ₹50,000 per child per annum on actuals (above a certain service quality benchmark) who have been on our fleet for more than five years."

Furthermore, he also added that this amount would also go up to ₹1 lakh per kid per annum when the delivery partner completes ten years with the company.

However, he also added stated that service thresholds of 5/10 years will be much lower when it comes to the women delivery partners. The company will also have a few special programmes for girl children and introduce 'prize money' when a girl clears her 12th grade and her graduation, he added.

Towards A Better Future!

Goyal claimed higher education scholarships would also be over and above these limits for children with higher performance and potential.

In the case of Zomato's delivery partners who meet with "unfortunate circumstances such as accidents, while on the job", livelihood and educational support for their families will also be provided regardless of the service tenure.

While reiterating that 100 per cent of the proceeds of this "ESOP vesting cycle" are committed to ZFF, he added that to reap the most benefit for ZFF, and also to protect the interests of their shareholders, he has no intention to liquidate all of these shares immediately and over the next few years.

In the first year, less than 10 per cent of these ESOPs are set to be liquidated towards this fund, counting that the ZFF will also be open to donations from other employees of Zomato.

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