Social commerce platform CityMall, on Tuesday announced its first Esop (employee stock ownership plan) buyback programme worth $1.3 million, benefitting 50 employees across core team members and the senior leadership of the company.
The buyback programme is a way to recognise the contribution of the early employees who had faith in the company’s vision and have made a significant contribution to CityMall’s journey, the company said in a release.
“The Esop buyback is an important milestone in our mission to build a company that is Bharat first, employee-focused and rewards those who have believed in us from day zero,” said co-founders Angad Kikla and Naisheel Verdhan in a joint statement.
Founded in 2019, CityMall is a social commerce platform that lists everyday use products like grocery, FMCG as well as certain home and kitchen-related products. The company is planning to add new categories such as beauty, and accessories.
Backed by Accel Partners, Elevation Capital and Waterbridge, CityMall is currently present in 22 cities and towns across Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi-NCR. The company is operational in smaller cities, towns and villages.
CityMall enables micro-entrepreneurs to sell on its platform. It calls such individuals ‘community leaders’, who use the platform to aggregate orders and also work as logistics partners.
The company claims that it has been growing 30% month-on-month since its inception in 2019. The startup also claims to be serving over 10 lakh customers via its network of 6000 sellers.
In June, Citymall laid off 191 employees due to structural changes at the company. "191 of our employees will be parting with us due to structural changes across functions at CityMall,” a Citymall spokesperson had said.
The layoff came a few months after the company raised about $75 million in March in Series C funding led by Norwest Venture Partners. The round, which saw participation from General Catalyst, Citius, Jungle Ventures, Arena Ventures, Elevation, Accel and Waterbridge, valued the startup at over $300 million.
In June last year, CityMall raised $22.5 million as part of its Series B funding round led by venture capital firms General Catalyst and Singapore’s Jungle Ventures. In total, the startup has raised $110 million.