Athira Sethu
Kochi, 11 August 2025
More than 140 top employees of Eternal, the parent entity of Blinkit and Zomato, converted their Employee Stock Options (ESOPs), purchasing shares worth ₹419 crore. The action is indicative of increased confidence from the company’s top brass about the business’s future.
The largest portion of this was from Albinder Dhindsa, Blinkit CEO, who exercised stock options valued at ₹214.5 crore, more than half the total value. He was accompanied by 31 other senior executives, all of whom exercised their ESOPs, converting over ₹1 crore worth of shares each. Some of these include executives from Blinkit, Zomato, and Hyperpure, a food supply unit.
ESOPs are a method by which companies reward employees through the facility of enabling the employees to purchase company shares at a pre-set low price, commonly below market value. This benefits the employees through earning profits if the company performs well and share prices increase.
Executives such as Rishi Arora (Hyperpure CEO), Aditya Mangla (head of food delivery at Zomato), and others made huge conversions. For instance, Kunal Swarup, a corporate development head, purchased shares worth ₹25.2 crore.
The stock option exercise is being made when Eternal’s stock is at a 7-month high, closing at ₹300.80 per share. The company is now worth ₹2.9 lakh crore, or approximately $33 billion.
Quick grocery delivery company Blinkit is expanding rapidly. Its gross order value (GOV) in the April–June period increased 140% year-on-year to ₹11,821 crore. This was for the first time higher even than Zomato’s GOV. But because of stiff competition and rapid expansion, Eternal’s profit fell 90% to only ₹25 crore.
Blinkit also added 243 new stores in only three months, now having more than 1,500 dark stores (small warehouses). The company expects to hit 2,000 stores by December and 3,000 in the longer term.
Experts comment that such conversions of stock options indicate strong faith in the future of the company. Meanwhile, it’s a clever means for leaders to build wealth, particularly when stock prices are rising.
This ESOP event is part of the larger trend in other technology companies such as Flipkart, which has also incentivized employees over the years through stock buybacks.
In short, Blinkit and its parent Eternal are not just expanding rapidly but also establishing high confidence among their key leaders, as evident from this gargantuan ₹419 crore stock option conversion.
