Zerodha founders' salaries touch Rs. 200 crore in FY23
Zerodha co-founders and brothers, Nithin and Nikhil Kamath, received a combined compensation of Rs. 195.4 crore in fiscal year 2022-23 (FY23). As reported by Entracker.com, both brothers earned Rs. 72 crore each as their annual compensation during this period. This follows Zerodha's board approving up to Rs. 100 crore in remuneration for three of its directors in FY22.
How much were others paid?
Nithin Kamath's wife and Zerodha director Seema Patil, took home Rs. 36 crore as remuneration. Meanwhile, COO Venu Madhav was paid Rs. 15.4 crore for the same period. The gross salary for Nithin and Nikhil was Rs. 48 crore and the rest was part of "others." They did not avail any stock option/sweat equity.
Employee benefit costs and ESOPs at Zerodha
In FY23, Zerodha's employee benefits cost rose by 35.7% to Rs. 623 crore, up from Rs. 459 crore in FY22. The company paid a total of Rs. 380 crore in salaries, including those of its directors. Notably, out of the Rs. 623 crore, Rs. 236 crore was spent on Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) that were settled in cash. In 2021, Zerodha unveiled a Rs. 200 crore ESOP buyback plan when it self-assessed its valuation at $2 billion (Rs. 16,000cr).
Tech issues and competition with Groww
Recently, founder Nithin Kamath apologized on X for the inconvenience caused by consecutive tech issues on November 6 and December 4. Kamath said, "Unfortunately, we have had two episodes in quick succession in the last two months, affecting between 5 and 20 per cent of our active customers." Meanwhile, Groww overtook Zerodha in active users among stockbroking platforms, with 6.63 million users compared to Zerodha's 6.48 million as of September 2023, according to National Stock Exchange (NSE) data.
