Digital insurance company RenewBuy has executed its second employee stock ownership buyback plan (Esop), worth Rs 13.7 crore, for its existing and former employees.
The second Esop has been executed in the last 12 months and provided encashment to its employees who were associated for three years and above, it added.
VCCircle reported this development few weeks ago. The Esop buyback happened in two tranches with the second tranche facilitated by the $55 million the company raised from a clutch of investors including Evolvence India Fund and UK based asset manager Apis Partners earlier this year.
“RenewBuy has created one the largest Esop pools for its employees, in the InsurTech space. We have provided the Esop buyback to employees in two tranches; to reinstate their sense of ownership and align their growth with RenewBuy’s growth. We would encourage our talent to participate in the long-term wealth creation, which is generated by the impact they create," said Balachander Sekhar, CEO of RenewBuy.
The company said that in the next five years it plans to reach around 25 million customers through over 200,000 point of sale person (POSP) advisors in India and abroad.
RenewBuy, operated by D2C Insurance Broking Pvt Ltd, was founded by Balachander Sekhar and Indraneel Chatterjee in 2015. The platform originally focused on the motor insurance sector and later added health and life insurance as well.
In August, the platform raised $10 million (Rs 74 crore) more Series C funding from new investor Evolvence India Fund.
The firm had also raised Series B funding of Rs 130 crore led by Lok Capital and IIFL in July 2019. Prior to this, the start-up had raised $9.2 million (around Rs 60 crore) from Amicus Capital in 2017.
According to the statement, the company now has about 60,000 point of sale (POS) partners and has insured more than three million customers across 750 cities and towns.
Esop buybacks by startups have been made public more than ever this year. 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.
In a similar space, recently, meat and seafood delivery firm Licious announced a new Esop, christened ‘Everyday Vesting, Anytime Liquidation’, starting next year.