Grip Closes First ESOP Buyback Round within Two Years of Inception
Grip, a digital platform for new-age investments, announced the conclusion of its employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) buyback. Grip facilitated an ESOP buyback within just 18 months of its inception in June 2020. Grip’s focus was to reward and recognise the valuable contributions of its employees that are helping the startup grow 35% m-o-m.
The buyback was eligible for employees who have been with the company for more than six months and were paid at the current valuation.
On the successful completion of the buyback round, Vivek Gulati, Co-Founder & COO, Grip, said “Having witnessed tremendous growth in the past few months, we wanted to recognise the contributions of our employees to the company’s growth and reward them for their enthusiastic commitment to Grip. This ESOP buyback is just one of among the many initiatives that Grip wants to empower its employees with. I am delighted by the response of our team, with the majority of eligible employees opting to stay vested in the company. As we accelerate, we will continue to invest heavily in promising talent across product, business and technology and create a tech-driven workplace that fosters innovation and transparency.”
Grip has designed one of the most employee friendly ESOP policies in the country. The new-age investment platform offers a 10 years exercise period for its existing employees and former employees. The purchase price of the ESOP is kept at the minimum of INR 10/- ESOP. Further, it leverages tech platforms to structure and allocate ESOPs to its employees, giving them real time visibility of the shares. The company plans to execute more buyback rounds in the upcoming future, to continue to empower employees and their commitment to Grip.
Vivek Gulati, Co-founder, Grip, said “We want Grip to be a people-first organization with a strong purpose-driven culture. Creating such a workplace can be challenging but has immense potential to drive sustainable growth. Employees joining early stage ventures need to be rewarded disproportionately for the role they play in building companies and enabling hyper-growth.”
The initiative comes days after Grip made history by providing their users a chance to become shareholders in the company through an user-led equity funding round. The funding round, which the company initiated on strong demand from its users, saw Grip secure $1Mn.
Grip is also witnessing strong growth. In the past 19 months, Grip has built a community of 175,000+ investors, has facilitated the leasing of assets worth 170+ crores, enabling 70+ companies such as Udaan, Furlenco, Holisol, Loadshare, ChargeZone, etc., to access a different channel of growth capital. Moreover, Grip is witnessing a 35% month-on-month growth of users on its platform following strong demand for alternative investment opportunities in India.
