SmartPaddle Technology Pvt. Ltd, which owns and operates the business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce and supply chain enablement platform Bizongo, Monday said it has executed its first employee stock options (ESOP) buyback worth $3.7 million (around Rs 28 crore).
The company said in a statement that 102 of Bizongo’s former and current employees were eligible for the buyback, but only 70% of its employees opted to liquidate ESOPs from the pool worth $4.8 million (around Rs 36 crore).
It will also use the buyback to build world-class teams and acquire more talent, it added.
"Bizongo has witnessed hyper-growth in revenue over the past few years and this is a direct outcome of the hard work and dedication of CULTivators (Bizongo employees, who together form the organisational culture - CULT). Our employees are an invaluable asset and partners, who have helped us achieve newer heights and remain profitable even during the pandemic" said Ankit Tomar, co-founder and CTO at Bizongo.
"Today, we are a market leader in the customized goods category and this ESOP repurchase is our little way of sharing our success and growth with all who have been a part of Bizongo’s journey so far," he added.
Founded in 2015 by three IIT graduates Tomar, Aniket Deb and Sachin Agrawal, Bizongo is digitising the massively fragmented B2B segment of made-to-order goods.
The company offers boxes, containers, pouches and bags for industries such as food and hospitality, consumer goods and retail. It has warehouses in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Delhi. Its clients include BigBasket, Nykaa, Swiggy, Delhivery, Teabox, Tata Cliq, among others.
Last year in December, Bizongo raised $110 million in a Series D round led by New York-based Tiger Global Management. Recently, the company acquihired Hexa, a Bengaluru-based edtech cloud platform for college placements.
ESOP buybacks by startups have been made public more than ever in the past months. Indian startups are also exploring creative ways to hire-and retain-staff, including expanding their ESOPS, as they battle each other and more established companies for talent, as per a VCCircle analysis recently.
