Exclusive: Decoding the shareholding and worth of Zomato’s co-founders

Temasek has picked up preference capital worth nearly $61 million through MacRitchie Investments, as we had reported last week. According to regulatory filings, the Gurugram-based company has allotted 15,188 preference shares at an issue price of Rs 300,235 per share to the Singapore government-owned investment firm.

Following the financing round, Temasek will hold a 2.73% stake in Zomato. While the share price has been discounted by 7%, its valuation more or less remains unchanged. Fintrackr’s calculation estimates that the company has been valued at $3.18 billion, post-money. Zomato was valued at $3.25 billion when it raised $5 million from Scotland-based Pacific Horizon Investment Trust in April earlier this year. 

The fresh capital would give a much-needed runway to the foodtech major as it was unable to receive the $100 million announced funding from Ant Financials due to a ban on foreign direct investment under the automatic route from countries that share a border with India. 

While the complete shareholding pattern will be out after the complete allotment of the ongoing Series J round, we have decoded the top individual stakeholders and their worth. Deepinder Goyal, Zomato’s co-founder and chief executive officer is the biggest individual stakeholder in the company, controlling a 7.7% stake worth nearly $245.2 million.

The other co-founder Pankaj Chaddah had moved on from Zomato in 2018 to launch MindHouse, still commands a 1.75% stake in Zomato. At present, his ownership is pegged at around $55.7 million. The company’s chief technology officer Gunjan Patidar controls 0.54% stake and his holding has been estimated to be north of $17.25 million. Patidar has been with Zomato's leadership team since its inception, however, he is not in the company's co-founding team.

In comparison, rival Swiggy’s co-founder and CEO Sriharsha Majety has a 5.54% stake which is valued at $172 million. Nandan Reddy owns 2.5% of Swiggy worth $77.73 million whereas Rahul Jaimini, who left Swiggy to join Pesto Tech as co-founder, holds 2% equity worth $62 million.

Entrackr had exclusively reported the shareholding pattern of Swiggy’s founding team in May this year.

Last week, Zomato also allotted ESOPs worth nearly $52 million. The ESOP subscription scheme is set to bring in $25 million for Zomato while creating wealth for its employees. At present, the ESOP trust controls a 6.77% stake in the food tech company on a fully diluted basis, worth nearly $217 million. 

Hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, Zomato had laid off over 500 employees and snipped salaries to control burn and conserve resources. However, the firm did reinstate the previous salary structure for the impacted employees in July. To focus on its core business of food delivery, the firm has also been scaling down its grocery vertical Zomato Market.