Mumbai, 23 March 2021: Urban Company – India and the UAE’s largest tech-enabled home services
marketplace – today open sourced a specially crafted ESOP policy for the startup ecosystem in
collaboration with MyStartupEquity, a cap table and ESOP management product by LetsVenture.
Urban Company, in collaboration with MyStartupEquity has developed the open-source ESOP
framework, which is available free of cost and can be accessed by one and all. With ESOP
implementation generally being a tedious process, Urban Company and MyStartupEquity aim to provide
a proper guide through this open source framework to help startups as well as private companies better
structure terms and conditions and roll out ESOPs with the ingrained intention of sharing ownership
with employees that eventually leads to wealth creation.
Urban Company worked with MyStartupEquity to make the open-source ESOP framework freely
available. This framework can be used and modified by companies or startups while building their ESOP
policy. This framework is a legally vetted document and the cornerstone of the policy is having simple
vesting terms, a reasonable exercise price on options and a generous exercise period. The framework
also comes with easy to use templates for grant and exercise letters.
In the words of Abhiraj Bhal, Co-Founder, Urban Company, “Urban Company has created substantial
value for its employees through ESOPs, conducting three secondary sales in less than six years for
existing employees worth nearly $8mn. We believe a robust, employee-friendly ESOP programme is one
of the pivotal pillars in attracting and retaining talent and building team morale. We now want to extend
this framework to budding entrepreneurs and lend a helping hand in their entrepreneurial journey.”
Sanjay Jha, Co-founder & CPO, MyStartup Equity said, “Talent is the most important growth driver for a
startup. Therefore, it’s not only important to attract top talent but also to retain and reward them and
we have seen ESOPs play a very important role here. We are happy to collaborate with Urban Company
in developing this ESOP framework which helps startups in India adopt not only an employee friendly
policy but also addresses the interests from the company’s side as well. ”
Urban Company has been a front runner in creating value for its employees through its robust employee
stock options policy. In a span of six years, the company has already conducted three secondary share
sales giving its employees a benefit of ~$8 M. The Company’s last ESOP secondary sale was held in
August 2020, when 180-plus eligible employees participated and each ESOP was valued at INR 110,000.
Under the present programme too, employees have the option of liquidating their vested ESOPs via
employee-friendly terms. These include an exercise price of Re 1, accelerated vesting, a flat 4-year
vesting schedule (25% each year) and an infinite hold period to exercise the ESOPs after the employee
exits the company.
About Urban Company:
Our Vision: To empower millions of professionals world-wide deliver services at home like never
experienced before.
Founded in Nov 2014, Urban Company is India and the UAE’s largest tech-enabled home services
company. The company offers services such as beauty and spa at home, cleaning, plumbing, carpentry,
appliance repair, painting, etc. through its mobile app and website. It operates in 18 cities in India
(including Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, Indore,
Jaipur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Ludhiana, Mumbai, Nagpur, Pune, Surat, Vadodara and Visakhapatnam) and 4
international markets (Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sydney and Singapore). It has a partner network of over
30,000 hand-picked service professionals, who are provided financing, training, and product or
consumables support. This full-stack approach helps the company live up to its promise of delivering
high-quality, delightful services at home.
About MyStartupEquity
MyStartupEquity, is a full stack SaaS platform that allows companies and founders to create their
respective ESOP policy, facilitate ESOP liquidity, manage cap tables and grant digitally signed letters
from the product itself. The captable allows round and exit modelling, notifiers and converters for debt
instruments and close circuit communication with existing and new investors. My Startup Equity has
served more than 200+ customers with over 55+ being Series B funded companies across Singapore,
USA,India counts Zetwerk, Jupiter, Trell, Scripbox, Wildcraft, Atlan, Cyware, Darwinbox, Epifi, Ketto,
Kissflow and NextBillion as its customers.