On-demand work fulfilment platform Awign, on Wednesday announced its first employee stock option plan (Esop) and buyback programme worth Rs 4 crore in a bid to attract, retain and create value for employees.
Eligible employees of Awign will be able to participate in this Esop buyback to liquidate their part of the vested stock in the company with the programme. Current as well as ex-employees will be given the option to liquidate a portion of their stock to drive wealth creation.
The Esop buyback comes after the company recently raised $15 million in its Series B round from Bertelsmann Investments India, Amicus Capital, MyNavi Corporation, and other existing investors. To date, the company has raised a total of $22.3 million.
Founded in 2016, Awign offers on-demand work fulfilment services through a community of about one million gig partners. The company helps enterprises run their businesses by solving end-to-end outcome-based execution along with discovery, deployment, fulfilment, and payroll management.
Awign is planning to double its employee strength by the end of 2023.
“In the last year itself, our team has enabled 10X growth in revenues. With this ESOP buyback program, we take another step to reward our employees, and build shared ownership and value for them. We are committed to leverage ESOPs as an instrumental tool for driving wealth creation for our employees, along with attracting talent to build the next gen of innovators and leaders at Awign,” said Annanya Sarthak, co-founder and chief executive of the company.
In the past few months, several Indian startups have announced Esop buyback plans to reward their employees. For instance, early this week, retailtech startup Daalchini Technologies Pvt Ltd. announced its first-ever Esop liquidation plan worth Rs 1 crore for its current and former employees.
In September, Accel-backed social commerce platform CityMall announced its first Esop buyback programme worth $1.3 million. 50 employees across core team members and the senior leadership of the company benefitted from the programme.
Also, in May, Tiger Global-backed Razorpay Inc., a provider of online payment and lending services to businesses, offered to buy back stock options worth up to $75 million from 650 former and existing employees.
