Urban Company, a home service marketplace, has announced its Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) sale, amounting to Rs 203 crore (approximately $25 million). According to the company, 446 employees are participating in this fifth ESOP buyback.
The beneficiary employees' age ranges from 23 to 56, with women making up 28 per cent of the beneficiaries. An Employee Stock Ownership Plan, or ESOP, as the name suggests, is an employee benefit plan through which an employee can own stocks of the company. “
This sale will provide a means for present and past corporation workers to sell their vested stock. These shares will be acquired from current and former employees by Dharana Capital, an affiliate of Vy Capital, as well as by Vy Capital and Prosus.
“At Urban Company, we use ESOPs as a wealth creation tool to retain and reward our talent. While ESOPs are awarded in a broad-based fashion across mid-to-senior-level employees, the quantum is skewed towards critical roles and high-performing team members,” said Raghav Chandra, co-founder and CPTO, Urban Company.
According to Urban Company, 1593 current and former employees have received ESOPs to date. Of these, five secondary ESOP sale programs have been participated in by 784 employees and ex-employees, with liquidation ESOPs valued at ₹306 crore. 11 percent of the company's present fully diluted cap table is allocated to ESOPs, which include sold, vested, and unvested ESOPs.
In 2021, the company completed its last ESOP liquidity programme. The valuation for the same was $2.8 billion. For the current buyback, the company has not disclosed the valuation. However, as per a report by Entrackr, it is around $2.2 billion to $2.5 billion. The report also says that by the second half of next year, Urban Company plans to go public. Urban Company will become the twelfth unicorn in the country in 2021 after a $188 million funding round led by Prosus Ventures.
