Swiggy IPO to mint 500 crorepatis; 5,000 employees set to earn Rs 9,000 crore in total

Sriharsha Majety, Group CEO, Swiggy

Around 500 Swiggy employees are set to earn Rs 1 crore each when the firm makes its stock market debut on November 13, people in the know told Moneycontrol. In all, the upcoming IPO, one of the largest in recent years, is set to put a whopping Rs 9,000 crore in the hands of 5,000 staffers who have been associated with the company for several years and scaled it.

To be sure, the 500 crorepatis are part of the wider 5,000 staffers who are set to benefit from the ESOP payout.

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 had carried out a similar exercise and paid a staggering $1.4-1.5 billion (Rs 11,600-12,500 crore) to its current and former employees in what was one of the largest wealth creation drives in India's startup ecosystem. Flipkart's payouts include the company's recent payment of 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 $1.4-1.5 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.

ALSO READ: You’re hired! Swiggy adds Flipkart, Amazon executives to cart amid e-commerce push

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.