Jackpot pay: Fintech start-up Zerodha co-founders to earn ₹100 crore each

Fintech unicorn Zerodha is reaping rich dividends for its founders. Brothers Nithin and Nikhil Kamath, who co-founded the unicorn, are all set to bag a ₹100 crore per annum salary each, deals tracking news site Entrackr has said. A unicorn is a start-up that is valued at $1 billion or more.

Bengaluru-based Zerodha offers an online platform for users to invest in stocks, derivatives, mutual funds and other financial instruments.

All in the family

Seema Patil, Nithin’s wife and newly appointed whole-time director at Zerodha, is also eligible for a ₹100 crore salary. This means, the family will get an income of ₹300 crore per annum, said the report. They would be the “highest paid co-founders and directors in India’s start-up ecosystem”, it observed.

Zerodha’s board has passed a special resolution approving a remuneration of up to Rs 100 Cr per annum each to Nikhil Kamath, Nithin Kamath and Seema Patilhttps://t.co/flYKzEHu6Z

— Entrackr (@entrackr) May 28, 2021

The trio’s monthly pay includes ₹4.17 crore as basic and ₹4.17 crore as incentives and allowances. Madhav Kota Subramanya has also taken over as a whole-time director of Zerodha for a five-year tenure from May 10, 2021. His remuneration has been set at ₹2 crore a year, said the report.

Also read: India’s millennials drive surge in stock trading

Listing other high earners in India’s start-up ecosystem, the Entrackr report said Zomato’s Deepinder Goyal, Paytm’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma, InCred’s Bhupinder Singh, Dream11’s Harsh Jain and CarTrade’s Vinay Sanghi had each made ₹3-6 crore in the 2020-21 fiscal.

Twitterati were all agog over the information regarding Zerodha founders’ salaries.

This reminds me of my interview with Nithin in 2019, where he once said: “Zerodha doesn’t hire from IITs/IIMs because our starting salary is quite less. This IIT/IIM crowd didn’t fit into our culture.” #justsaying 🙂 https://t.co/rNETB8N6Cg

— Arti Singh (@artijourno) May 28, 2021

Buyback of ESOP at $2Bn valuation despite being bootstrapped is unprecedented and special! #Zerodha shows that a focus on 3 P’s – people, product and profitability is what it takes to succeed.

Great work @Nithin0dha and team! https://t.co/YB2duggOXs

— Sujata Bogawat (@sujatavb) May 28, 2021

WFH views

Last month, Nithin Kamath had made news when he said many of the country’s problems can be addressed by moving away from the larger cities.

“Large cities are choking and will continue to break down every time we’re tested, COVID today, could be water shortages, pollution, floods, etc. Moving to smaller towns & villages will also create livelihoods there & reduce carbon footprint,” he had tweeted.

His company is now transitioning many of its employees to permanent work from home (WFH).