Edtech unicorn upGrad increases ESOP pool size 

(From L-R) upGrad founders Phalgun Kompalli, Ronnie Screwvala and Mayank Kumar

Edtech unicorn upGrad has increased its employee stock option plan (ESOP) pool by 3,00,000 shares, according to the company's regulatory filings with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA).

upGrad has increased the ESOP pool size to 25,25,810 shares from 22,25,810 shares, the regulatory filings showed. According to estimates, upGrad's fresh options are worth Rs 244 crore or $30 million, while its employee stocks are worth approximately Rs 2,058 crore or $260 million.

Entrackr first reported the development, saying that it is the second instance of an increment in the Mumbai-based company’s stock pool size in the past nine months.

upGrad declined to comment on the development.

Recently, the company raised $210 million in a funding round at a valuation of $2.25 billion, led by ETS Global, one of the world's largest providers of global entrance tests such as GRE and TOEFL, and Bodhi Tree, an investment vehicle set up by media veterans Uday Shankar and James Murdoch, among others.

Also Read: How upGrad’s co-founder Mayank Kumar raised one of India’s largest funding rounds this year amid edtech slowdown

upGrad had then said its founders--Ronnie Screwvala, Mayank Kumar, and Phalgun Kompalli--also invested $12.5 million in this round to maintain their ownership of over 50 percent of the edtech unicorn.

upGrad has also been on a buying spree, acquiring about 13 companies with Exampur, Harappa Education, and Wolves India being some of the latest on the list.

ESOPs offered by startups in India are regaining significance over the last three months with many unicorns and startups either buying back ESOPs to incentivise employees or expanding their ESOP pool.

Last month, SoftBank-backed edtech unicorn Unacademy also increased its ESOP pool by 20 percent, to 286 million options from 238.7 million options, the regulatory filings showed.

The edtech unicorn had issued bonus shares in April to all eligible employees, thus increasing its ESOP pool to 238.7 million options from 99.5 thousand options.

Around the same time, iD Fresh Food also announced its seventh round of ESOP tranche worth Rs 46 crores for 27 staff members.

In June, food, and grocery delivery platform Swiggy said it will be buying back shares worth $23 million issued under its employee stock option program (ESOP) from about 900 employees in a bid to incentivise them.

Earlier in May, business-to-business (B2B) payments and neo banking platform Razorpay had said that the company was looking to get new investors on board through a share sale of $75 million by its employees.

To be sure, startups were going slow on ESOP expansion in the first four months of 2022, after unicorns including Nykaa, Paytm and Zomato which got listed on the stock exchanges last year, faced shareholder dissent on their ESOP programs.