Edtech major Byju’s has been in the thick of actions in 2020 despite the fact that the global startup industry has been reeling under the pandemic effect. The edtech unicorn raised massive funds through success funding rounds from global investors to become one of the most sought after Indian startup amid the pandemic.
Now after pulling off probably one of the greatest funding juggernauts, Byju’s has decided to expand its ESOP for incentivizing its existing employees and top management personals. The company recently passed the special resolution to add 71,698 equity shares to its ESOP pool. The equity shares have been valued at Rs 10 each, with the total worth of the fresh equity infusion coming to nearly Rs 72 lakh.
It must be noted that Byju’s had overhauled its ESOP scheme in a big way by replacing 2015 Esop Scheme with ESOP 2019 scheme. Under the new scheme, the company added 99,258 fresh equity stocks to take its ESOP pool to total 1,38,648 shares. The value of ESOP pool back then had crossed over Rs 1,300 Cr.
Another edtech major and newly crowned unicorn Unacademy has also recently increased its ESOP pool. Unacademy allotted 11,973 fresh shares to its employee stock options to take its total ESOP pool to 65,017 Option. From its current ESOP scheme, the company has allotted 60 equity shares to CourSavy’s founder Vimal Singh Rathore. Therefore its existing ESOP pool has been reduced from 65017 to 64,957 shares.
As the startups struggle to grapple with pandemic shock, many startups have relied on ESOP pool for cutting cost and hold on to their talented as well as productive employees.
Outside edtech sector, other major startup players that have resorted to the ESOP schemes include ShareChat, Pine Labs, Oyo and Zomato.