According to the company’s regulatory filings with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, edtech unicorn upGrad has increased its employee stock option plan (ESOP) pool by 3,00,000 shares (MCA).
According to regulatory documents, upGrad has expanded the amount of the ESOP pool from 22,25,810 shares to 25,25,810 shares. The estimated value of upGrad’s new options is Rs 244 crore ($30 million), while the estimated value of its employee stock is Rs 2,058 crore ($260 million).
The news was first reported by Entrackr, which noted that it was the second time in the previous nine months that the stock pool size of the Mumbai-based company had increased.
upGrad chose not to comment on the situation.
A recent funding round led by ETS Global, one of the largest providers of international entrance exams like the GRE and TOEFL, and Bodhi Tree, an investment vehicle founded by media veterans Uday Shankar and James Murdoch, among others, saw the company raise $210 million at a valuation of $2.25 billion.
Ronnie Screwvala, Mayank Kumar, and Phalgun Kompalli, the founders of upGrad, were believed to have contributed $12.5 million to this round in order to keep control of more than 50% of the edtech unicorn.
Exampur, Harappa Education, and Wolves India are just a few of the most recent additions to upGrad’s list of approximately 13 companies it has bought.
ESOPs are in the news once more.
The importance of ESOPs supplied by startups in India has increased over the past three months as a result of numerous unicorns and companies either growing their ESOP pool or purchasing back ESOPs to reward employees.
Unacademy, an edtech startup sponsored by SoftBank, expanded its ESOP pool by 20% last month, from 238.7 million to 286 million options, according to regulatory filings.
The edtech unicorn increased its ESOP pool from 99.5 thousand options to 238.7 million options in April by issuing bonus shares to all qualified employees.
