Just a week after reporting Q1FY26 earnings on 21 July, over 1.3 crore shares worth about ₹420 crore were exercised in a single day, 96% of all insider buys in the month. Blinkit executives dominated the activity, with CEO Albinder Dhindsa alone converting 70 lakh shares worth ₹214.6 crore, accounting for the lion’s share of the pie.

Alongside senior leaders Udit Gupta, Anish Srivastava and Sajal Gupta, Blinkit insiders drove nearly 60% of all shares exercised. Just five names made up 70% of the conversions, while the top 32 accounted for over 90%.

By mid-August, the Esop wave moved into its next phase, with some of the same executives beginning to pledge or sell portions of their new stock. On 12-13 August, over 42 lakh shares were pledged or offloaded. Dhindsa alone pledged 20 lakh shares on 12 August and sold another 17 lakh the next day.

Key Takeaways

Blinkit executives exercised over ₹420 crore in Esops after Eternal’s Q1 results.
CEO Albinder Dhindsa led with ₹214.6 crore in conversions, followed by pledges and sales.
Blinkit’s NOV nearly matched Zomato’s, signalling a shift in Eternal’s business mix.
Eternal’s profit dropped 90% due to investments and Blinkit’s inventory-led transition.
Esops are now central to compensation and retention in India’s listed tech firms.

More than 142 executives at Eternal exercised stock options between late July and mid-August. Analysts say the scale—and the skew towards Blinkit leaders—underlines its crown-jewel role within Eternal, while also reflecting how Esops have become a cornerstone of wealth creation in India’s new-age listed companies.

Eternal declined to comment in response toMint’s queries.

“Once stock options vest, it’s usually in the company’s interest for employees to exercise them quickly. Otherwise, the cost of those options keeps piling up on the company’s books. For employees, exercising early also makes sense—because then any future gains are taxed more favourably as capital gains rather than income,” said Anshuman Das, CEO of executive search firm Longhouse.

Insider moves

“That’s why, when insiders believe the stock has strong upside, they prefer to exercise sooner rather than later. It signals both confidence in the company and a strategic wealth-creation move,” Das added.

“Leaders convert options after strong quarters when they think the momentum will last. In Eternal’s case, the spike came as Blinkit was outperforming and gaining weight in the group. Still, exercises also reflect personal cash needs and tax planning—so it’s not a pure vote on valuation,” said Indranuj Pathak, manager Primus Partners, a management consulting firm in Delhi.

Executives from Zomato, Hyperpure, and District did exercise stock options, but their volumes were dwarfed by Blinkit leaders, who accounted for nearly 60% of the activity. The scale and concentration tilted sharply toward Blinkit.

Esops have largely been a wealth-creation tool for new-age listed companies.

“That’s why we’re seeing this trend pick up more now, especially as more startups have gone public. Startups and tech-driven firms that went public recently rely heavily on stock options to attract and retain talent. Older, traditional firms didn’t give out Esops at the same scale,” said Das.

Listed consumer internet and logistics (food/quick commerce, beauty/e-commerce, insure-tech, parcel logistics) show frequent grants and allotments because they rely on equity for retention and have well-defined disclosure pipelines. Recent disclosures span Eternal (consumer internet/quick commerce), PB Fintech (insure-tech), Nykaa (beauty/e-commerce), Delhivery (logistics), and Paytm (fintech)—each for different reasons (growth hiring, retention, plan refreshes, or regulatory clean-ups), explained Pathak.

Groceries are now neck-and-neck with food at Eternal, parent of Zomato and Blinkit, marking a turning point for the delivery giant. In Q1 FY26, Blinkit’s net order value (NOV) nearly matched Zomato’s for the first time— ₹10,000 crore of Eternal’s ₹20,183 crore total—making quick commerce almost half of its $10 billion annualised NOV.

Esop strategy

Eternal’s profit after tax, however, plunged 90% to ₹25 crore, hit by Bistro investments and Blinkit’s costly shift to an inventory-led model, set to complete in two-three quarters.

Eternal is betting that Blinkit’s rapid scale up will pay off once its shift to an inventory-led model is complete. “Control on inventory gives us more leverage on margins in the business, plus allows us to push harder and faster on assortment expansion. We expect to see about 1 percentage point margin expansion over time, as a result of this transition,” it said in its Q1FY26 shareholders’ letter.

Yet, Blinkit has cemented its lead in India’s quick-commerce race against Zepto, Swiggy Instamart, Reliance JioMart, Amazon Now, Flipkart Minutes and Tata-backed BigBasket.

Blinkit is also now the only quick-commerce player doubling down on the dark-store model. While Swiggy’s Instamart has paused new additions since March, choosing to consolidate smaller outlets into larger formats of 3,500-4,500 sq. ft, Blinkit has accelerated its rollout.

In FY25, Blinkit ramped up store count 147% year-on-year to 1,301, expanding its warehousing footprint to 5.2 million sq. ft. In Q1 FY26 alone, it added 243 stores, taking the total to 1,544 as of 30 June. Eternal said it is on track to hit 2,000 dark stores by December, with a longer-term goal of 3,000.