Swiggy Will Buyback ESOPs Worth Rs 180 Crore; It Will Directly Benefit 900 Employees & Make Them Rich!

Swiggy is buying back shares worth $23 million (over Rs 180 crore) issued under its employee stock option program (ESOP) from its employees to incentivise them.

As many as 900 of its employees will now have the option to receive liquidity of up to $23 million against their ESOPs. 

BYOD

It also introduced a new program, named Buy Your Own Dollar (BYOD).

In this, employees can choose to invest in the company’s ESOPs which were earlier offered to employees above a certain grade and/or based on performance.

The program will be open to all permanent employees of Swiggy.

Rewarding employees

The company will hold the next round of ESOP liquidity in July 2023 which would enable employees to liquidate their holdings.

Girish Menon, Head of HR said that the company places importance on rewarding employees by “creating wealth opportunities”.

“We are happy seeing the wealth created for employees from the recent ESOP liquidity event,” he said.

Grow along with company

Taking this further, the company is extending the opportunity to own Swiggy ESOPs to all employees through the BYOD program.

Through these initiatives employees will be able to “potentially gain from our growth and success”.

Swiggy had rolled out a two-year ESOP liquidity program worth $35-40 million in October last year after it received $1.25 billion in funding in July 2021.

The value of these stock options have increased in tandem with the company’s valuation.

“Democratizing” wealth creation

Menon had said at the time that the company wants its team to grow along with it and “enjoy the fruits of their hard work and valuable contributions”.

He said that this is an industry-first initiative whereby it is “democratizing wealth creation” by letting all ESOP holding employees participate in liquidity events in 2022 and 2023.

The employees, who are called Swiggsters, will hold the option and flexibility to plan their cash flow and investments by “giving them visibility on the ESOP liquidity”.

This January it had raised $700 million at a valuation of over $10 billion, making it a decacorn.