PhonePe conducts Rs 135-crore ESOP buyback

Mumbai: PhonePe, part of the Walmart Inc-controlled Flipkart Group, has conducted ESOP buyback worth Rs 135 crore, but the company's founders—Sameer Nigam and Rahul Chari—have given it a miss.

The company’s top leadership can sell upto 10% of their vested stock while all other current employees can sell up to 25%, the company said in a statement on Friday.

In December 2020, PhonePe had launched a Rs 1,500-crore ESOPs programme that was open to all its employees with a minimum annual salary of Rs 3.5 lakh. Typically, stock options are not granted to all employees in an organisation, especially at the junior levels.

“Almost 75% of our current workforce is eligible to participate in the current buyback offer, and for most it’s the first time in their careers that they’ve either owned ESOPs or had a chance to liquidate them,” PhonePe’s HR head Manmeet Sandhu said.

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In July, ET had reported that a host of startups have bought back employees’ stock worth $546 million. Companies like Swiggy and Meesho recently announced similar buybacks.