Coronavirus: Zomato raises Rs 1.5 Cr for its Gold Support Fund
Earlier this month, Zomato launched Gold Support Fund to give all the proceeds from the purchase of Zomato Gold annual memberships in April towards supporting restaurant housekeepers, cooks and servers as well as their families.
Within just two weeks of launching Gold Support Fund, Zomato has raised about Rs 1.5 crore through 14500+ contributors, announced Deepinder Goyal, Co-founder and CEO, Zomato, in a social media post. He tweeted saying that, "in the last 12 days, we have raised more than Rs 1.5 crore through 14500+ contributors. I want to thank everyone for generously contributing to help the restaurant workers affected by lockdown."
Deepinder Goyal, Co-founder and CEO, Zomato
Earlier this month, in a bid to support millions of restaurant workers of the food industry who are facing the possibility of losing their livelihoods due to lockdown in the wake of coronavirus pandemic, Zomato launched Gold Support Fund, under which all proceeds from the purchase of Zomato Gold annual memberships in April will go towards supporting restaurant housekeepers, cooks and servers as well as their families. All users who purchased the Gold annual subscription during this month got a two-year membership (instead of one year) at no additional cost.
In his tweet, Deepinder also said that more than 300 restaurants have written to Zomato already, and that its team is working closely with an independent audit firm to make disbursals quick and seamless. "If you are a restaurateur who can benefit from the initiative, I urge you to write to us at [email protected]," he added.
The foodtech unicorn also launched a Rider Relief Fund aimed at providing the delivery executives, who are left with little to no earnings amid the coronavirus lockdown, with enough money to buy ration for their families and for medical emergencies. Zomato is aiming to raise Rs 10 crore as part of this fund, benefitting around 100,000 delivery partners who are not able to work right now.
Currently, Zomato’s food delivery fleet comprises more than 250,000 delivery partners (DPs) in over 500 cities. With the ongoing crisis, however, business in close to 350 cities has been adversely impacted, leaving almost 100,000+ riders with no income. Announcing the launch of the ‘Riders Relief Fund’, the company also shared how the team and the senior management have joined hands in these trying times to deal with the crisis. According to the blog post, all Zomans (as they call themselves) have taken voluntary pay cuts or donated a significant part of their savings to help the community in need.
In order to serve its consumers during the current coronavirus lockdown, the Gurugram-based startup has also entered the grocery delivery segment with Zomato Market. This service will focus on doorstep delivery of groceries across Delhi, Punjab, and Kerala.
Edited by Kanishk Singh
