Top online education startup Unacademy has initiated its biggest ESOP buyback programme, just a month after it rolled out an industry-first teacher stock options plan.
“Happy to announce Unacademy's largest ESOPs buyback till date worth $10.5M for our team members and educators. This is our third buyback to date,” company co-founder Roman Saini tweeted.
“Extremely thankful to all our team members and educators for believing in our vision of democratizing education. Let's crack it!” Saini said.
Earlier on July 29, Unacademy announced that it will offer teacher stock options worth $40 million to educators on its platform over the next few years. “Unacademy educators will be eligible for fully vested stock grants on completion of three, four, and five years…,” cofounder Gaurav Munjal had said.
On Day One (which is today), we already have more than 300 educators eligible for the grant which they will get immediately. Over the next few years, we will give grants of over $40 million to our educators Munjal had announced.
The stock options or employee stock ownership plans, are reserved for permanent employees and are used as a tool to attract talent at fledgling startups and big technology firms. Several startups, including PhonePe, Licious, ShareChat, and Wakefit, have recently announced ESOP buyback to reward their employees amid a pandemic.
“The stocks (TSOPs) will continue to compound as the valuation of the company grows. You can expect the stock to grow multiple folds and by the time we do an IPO, the value of your stock would've grown a lot,” Munjal said in July.
Unacademy, which plans to get listed on the bourse, last month raised $40 million in a funding round led by Temasek Holdings at a post-money valuation of $3.4 billion. It has shut down Mastree, a year after acquiring a majority stake in the startup. The company has made around seven acquisitions so far.
