#StartupsVsCovid19: Zomato Gold Used For Donations; Dineout Launches Petition To Help Restaurants

Amid the nation-wide lockdown, many restaurants in India have been severely impacted. The financial crisis triggered by the lockdown has made it tough for restaurants to pay for expenses, rent, and salaries of their employees. To address their concerns, food delivery platform Zomato and table booking platform Dineout are now coming forward with unique initiatives.

To start with, Zomato has set up a Zomato Gold Support Fund. According to the founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal, all the money raised by the company by selling its Gold membership will be pooled in the fund.

In a series of tweets, Goyal said that restaurants face an unprecedented challenge amid the lockdown. “Restaurateurs are fighting to pay their rentals, and afford even the most basic livelihood to the workers — cooks, servers, housekeeping,” he added.

Users can contribute to this fund by purchasing an annual Gold membership for INR 1200. For the benefit of the users, the company is now providing a two-year membership, instead of one, as a token of appreciation. “All proceeds from the Zomato Gold Support Fund will go towards supporting the workers at some of the severely affected restaurants,” Goyal added.

Dineout Launches Campaign

In addition to Zomato, Dineout has also come up with a unique initiative to help the restaurant-partners. The restaurant table booking platform, along with the National Restaurant Association Of India, has launched a petition demanding government aid for them on Change.org. So far, over 28K people have signed the petition.

The petition was launched to gain the traction of the finance ministry and government to help these restaurants with employee unemployment pay cover, a moratorium on upcoming statutory dues, and delay in utility bill payments. Dineout has also asked the government to provide holiday or temporary stoppage on EMI payments and interest, freezing rental dues and restoration of the input tax credit on GST for all restaurants.

Ankit Mehrotra, co-founder and CEO, Dineout said that the Indian food service industry is one of our country’s largest industries in the service sector after retail and insurance. “The industry feeds over 7 Mn households and also supports multiple allied industries such as real estate, food processing, and consulting. The ongoing Covid-19 lockdowns and zero footfalls have led to huge monetary gaps that they are reeling under,” he added.

Some of the renowned restaurateurs such as Olive Bar and Kitchen Founder AD Singh, Biryani Blues Founder Raymond Andrews, Massive Restaurants founders Zorawar Kalra and Gurupreet Singh Bali have already signed this petition. Additionally, entrepreneurs in the F&B space, including Sleepy Owl cofounder Arman Sood, have also extended their support to the petition.

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