Swiggy's dollar millionaires: 70 employees to pocket over $1 million each as company delivers IPO

Swiggy's team at the listing ceremony at the NSE

As many as 70 former and current employees at Swiggy stand to make more than Rs 8.5 crore each ($1 million) – making them dollar millionaires – as the food delivery and quick commerce major successfully listed on the bourses on November 13, people aware of the developments told Moneycontrol. Swiggy’s Rs 11,327-crore IPO is one of the largest for a new-age company in recent years and has delivered for stakeholders across the board.

The 70 staffers are part of a wider group of 5,000 employees who will earn a staggering Rs 9,000 crore in total, thanks to healthy ESOP payouts, as reported by Moneycontrol earlier. Of the 5,000 staffers, 500 will earn at least Rs 1 crore each and from those 500 employees, 70 will pocket at least Rs 8.5 crore ($1 million) each as they await windfall gains from Swiggy’s ESOP payouts.

ESOPs, or employee stock options, are shares that company employees get as part of their compensation package. The longer one works with a firm, the higher they stand to earn from ESOPs. The shares are vested over a fixed period of time which incentivises employees to stay longer at a company and also gives them skin in the game.

Swiggy’s employee stock option (ESOP) payout exercise will be among the top ones in India’s startup scene where companies generating wealth at this scale is rare. Prior to Swiggy, Flipkart paid Rs 5,800 crore ($700 million) to 17,000 current and former employees in July 2023. While that was one of the single largest ESOP payouts for the Walmart-owned giant, the company had over five share buybacks worth $1.5 billion (Rs 12,000 crore) in total over the past years.

While other startups have also put money in the hands of employees, very few have come close to what Flipkart and Swiggy did.

Last month, Moneycontrol had reported that Swiggy co-founders Sriharsha Majety, Nandan Reddy and Phani Kishan, food marketplace CEO Rohit Kapoor, Swiggy Instamart head Amitesh Jha, CFO Rahul Bothra, HR head Girish Menon and CTO Madhusudhan Rao and several others had received $200 million (Rs 1,600 crore) in ESOPs ahead of the IPO.

Swiggy did not reply to Moneycontrol’s queries.

Swiggy's rival, Zomato, which listed on the exchanges in 2021 also created wealth for its staffers during its IPO. The Gurugram-based company had an ESOP pool of around Rs 7,000 crore back then and has continued to reward employees in the recent years, too.