Leadership Boulevard Pvt Ltd, which runs edtech platform LEAD, on Wednesday announced an employee stock option (ESOP) liquidity plan worth $3 million (around Rs 22.5 crore) for its employees to cash out.
The announcement comes close on the heels of LEAD securing Series E funding of $100 million led by WestBridge Capital. Nearly 20% of LEAD's employees own ESOPs, the firm said in a statement.
“I'm delighted that we are in a position to offer significant wealth creation opportunities to those who have joined us on our mission to provide an excellent education to every child. We have also included our Alumni in the Liquidation Plan because they continue to remain ambassadors of LEAD,” said Sumeet Mehta, Co-Founder and CEO of LEAD.
Founded by Sumeet Yashpal Mehta and Smita Deorah in 2012, LEAD claims to offer core schooling courses with its tech-integrated solutions. It serves over 3,000 schools across 400 cities, reaches 1.2 million students, and over 25,000 teachers.
On January 27, LEAD elevated Ritwik Khare as its Chief Operation Officer (COO). Khare had joined the startup as a Chief Commercial Officer in 2020.
Earlier in January, LEAD raised $100 million as a part of its Series E funding round at unicorn valuation.
Unicorns are private companies with a valuation of $1 billion or more.
Joining the likes of edtech firms Byju’s, owned and operated by Think and Learn Pvt Ltd, Unacademy, owned and operated by Sorting Hat Technologies Pvt Ltd, Vedantu Innovations Pvt Ltd, Eruditus Education Pvt Ltd, and upGrad Education Pvt Ltd. The company is also the first edtech unicorn of 2022.
In the past months, Indian startups have been exploring creative ways to hire—and retain—staff, including expanding their ESOPs, as they battle each other and more established companies for talent. The startups have also been more agile in conducting ESOP buyback programmes.