Grip, a digital platform for new-age investments, announced the conclusion of its employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) buyback. Grip facilitated an ESOP buyback within just 18 months of its inception in June 2020. Grip’s focus was to reward and recognise the valuable contributions of its employees that are helping the startup grow 35% m-o-m.
The buyback was eligible for employees who have been with the company for more than six months and were paid at the current valuation.
On the successful completion of the buyback round, Vivek Gulati, Co-Founder & COO, Grip, said “Having witnessed tremendous growth in the past few months, we wanted to recognise the contributions of our employees to the company’s growth and reward them for their enthusiastic commitment to Grip. This ESOP buyback is just one of among the many initiatives that Grip wants to empower its employees with. I am delighted by the response of our team, with the majority of eligible employees opting to stay vested in the company. As we accelerate, we will continue to invest heavily in promising talent across product, business and technology and create a tech-driven workplace that fosters innovation and transparency.”
Grip has designed one of the most employee friendly ESOP policies in the country. The new-age investment platform offers a 10 years exercise period for its existing employees and former employees. The purchase price of the ESOP is kept at the minimum of INR 10/- ESOP. Further, it leverages tech platforms to structure and allocate ESOPs to its employees, giving them real time visibility of the shares. The company plans to execute more buyback rounds in the upcoming future, to continue to empower employees and their commitment to Grip.
Vivek Gulati, Co-founder, Grip, said “We want Grip to be a people-first organization with a strong purpose-driven culture. Creating such a workplace can be challenging but has immense potential to drive sustainable growth. Employees joining early stage ventures need to be rewarded disproportionately for the role they play in building companies and enabling hyper-growth.”
The initiative comes days after Grip made history by providing their users a chance to become shareholders in the company through an user-led equity funding round. The funding round, which the company initiated on strong demand from its users, saw Grip secure $1Mn.
Grip is also witnessing strong growth. In the past 19 months, Grip has built a community of 175,000+ investors, has facilitated the leasing of assets worth 170+ crores, enabling 70+ companies such as Udaan, Furlenco, Holisol, Loadshare, ChargeZone, etc., to access a different channel of growth capital. Moreover, Grip is witnessing a 35% month-on-month growth of users on its platform following strong demand for alternative investment opportunities in India.
About Grip:
Grip is building a new category of investment options for the new-age of Indians. Millennials don’t communicate, shop, pay, entertain or work like the previous generation – then why should they invest the same way?
Started in June’20, Grip has seen a 35% month-on-month growth to become one of India’s fastest-growing destinations for non-stock market linked investments. Today, Grip offers a unique investment option of leasing assets to some of India’s most disruptive businesses like Udaan, Stanza Living, Furlenco, Bounce, Blue Tokai, Everest Fleet, IPLElectric, FabAlley and LetsTransport.
Grip was founded by Nikhil Aggarwal, Vivek Gulati, and Aashish Jindal. Prior to Grip, Nikhil co-founded and served as COO of Chalo, India’s leading mobility startup for city buses. He started his career at HSBC and then worked for 6 years with the Investment Banking team at Morgan Stanley, India. Nikhil also currently serves as a Consultant to the Transport Practice at the World Bank. Vivek was previously part of the business development team at Chalo and led business development for the Expansion Team for OYO Hotel’s domestic and international operations. Aashish Jindal previously worked in product and project management roles with ICICI Bank, Pepperfry and Chalo.
