New Delhi

"While the foundation of Zomato was built before MG joined us, he has been instrumental in significantly strengthening it over the last two years. What he and his team has built is a very large part of our business, and our DNA today," Goyal wrote in the email on Sunday, a copy of which has been seen by IANS."I'm happy to share that starting today, we are going to call MG a Founder at Zomato," he said.Zomato, which will mark 12 years in the industry this year, now has two other co-founders besides Goyal and Gupta -- Gunjan Patidar and Guarav Gupta.Zomato announced a Founders Program a year ago. The proramme was designed to recognise people who have contributed to Zomato deeply; have built/scaled businesses, and have consistently demonstrated a founder's mindset for a reasonable period of time; and are acknowledged for their passion, commitment and perseverance."When I introduced the Founders Program a little over a year ago, I outlined a few qualities that all founders must exhibit. These qualities include trustworthiness, commitment and resilience among other things. MG checks all these boxes and more," Goyal said.Guarav Gupta was also made a founder of the company last year under this programme.Due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, Zomato recently announced the decision to lay off nearly 13 per cent of its workforce -- over 600 employees."While we continue to build a more focused Zomato, we do not foresee having enough work for all our employees. We owe all our colleagues a challenging work environment, but we won't be able to offer that to 13 per cent of our workforce going forward," Goyal said in a statement this month.