Paytm, the digital financial services firm, has expanded its existing employee stock ownership plan(ESOP) pool by 2,42,904 stock options. Its ESOP valuation now stands at $604 million.
The Company plans to offer more employees stock options as part of its annual performance appraisal.
The addition takes the existing ESOP pool to 2.4 million equity options, which is probably the largest pool for any Indian startup.
Valued at more than $16 billion, this is yet another step by the Company to attract and retain talent.
In 2020, the Company had altered its ESOP policy to recognise and award high performers across ranks.
The ESOP scheme is aimed to promote wealth creation among the staff, of which every member is a valued stakeholder of the Company. The Company has linked ESOPs to the goals of each individual employee, which are reviewed and approved by the business heads with the flexibility to accommodate multiple scenarios and also meet employees’ aspirations, the firm said in a statement.
Currently, each share carries a value of about $250. Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder, Paytm, has holdings worth about $2.2 billion. He holds 9.05 million shares in the Company.
The payments platform has processed 1.4 billion monthly transactions in March, and has more than 20 million merchants on the same. Paytm’s growth in the offline payments space also continues at 15 per cent month on month.
