Swiggy Announces $65 Million Employee Stock Option Liquidity Program

Swiggy, the leading Indian food delivery and quick commerce company valued at over $10 billion, has announced a $65 million employee stock option (ESOP) liquidity program. This program marks Swiggy’s fifth initiative since 2018 to provide employees with the opportunity to sell their company stock options in a secondary market transaction.

Broad Employee Participation and Cumulative Benefits

The program extends to all Swiggy staff members across various departments and experience levels. In a press release, the company confirmed this is the third consecutive year they’ve conducted an ESOP liquidity event, following similar programs in July 2022 and 2023. Swiggy estimates that through these five programs, over Rs 1,000 crore worth of ESOPs have been converted to cash for more than 3,200 employees.

Investor Participation and Upcoming IPO

Swiggy did not disclose the identities of the investors participating in the secondary sale. However, Entrackr, a news platform focused on startups, previously reported in April that Swiggy offered a 20% discount on stock options during this secondary transaction.

The timing of this ESOP liquidity program coincides with Swiggy’s anticipated public market debut. The company confidentially filed initial public offering (IPO) documents seeking to raise Rs 10,400 crore (approximately $1.25 billion). The IPO is expected to occur within the next few weeks.

IPO Details and Shareholder Participation

Swiggy’s investors have endorsed the Initial public offering structure, which incorporates Rs 3,750 crore ($450 million) in new stock issuance and a proposal available to be purchased (OFS) part esteemed at Rs 6,664 crore ($800 million). Existing financial backers, including Prosus, SoftBank, DST Worldwide, Accel Accomplices, and Rise Capital, are probably going to sell a piece of their possessions through the OFS.

Employee Recognition and Market Trends

“As Swiggy approaches 10 years of acquiring client faithfulness,” expressed Girish Menon, Swiggy’s Head of HR, “this most recent ESOP program recognizes the critical commitments of our representatives and highlights our obligation to imparting Swiggy’s prosperity and development to them.”

While Swiggy settled on an optional deal to work with ESOP liquidity, other Indian new businesses in 2024, for example, Metropolitan Organization, MyGate, Classplus, Meesho, The Rest Organization, XYXX, and Pocket FM, have decided to repurchase ESOPs from their representatives straightforwardly. Startup information stage TheKredible reports that the complete ESOP buyback by Indian new companies in 2023 came to almost $802 million, altogether higher than the $440 million and $200 million kept in 2021 and 2022, separately.