All existing and former employees of Flipkart and group companies were given the opportunity to sell a part of their ESOP units to the Company
Online retailer, Flipkart, has bought back the shares owned by the employees for a whopping $100 million. Around 3000 existing and former employees of Flipkart, Myntra, Jabong and PhonePe benefited from this ESOP repurchase initiative, which is being called the largest-ever share buyback programme in the history of the Indian startup ecosystem.
In an official statement, Flipkart said that this programme was initiated in October and all eligible existing as well as former employees of Flipkart and group companies were given the opportunity to sell to the company a part of their vested ESOP units.
In a joint statement, the two founders of Flipkart, Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal said, “Employees are our biggest source of strength. Without them Flipkart couldn’t have built the e-commerce industry in India. As an organisation, we believe they should be equal partners in Flipkart’s success. This ESOP repurchase programme is an extension of that culture, and a token of thanks for the dedication and hard work they have put in over the years. We’re delighted to be setting the benchmark on this important parameter, not only in the startup industry but the wider Indian private sector as well.”
The company has undertaken such a buy-back programme in the past too, but this is the first time at such a big scale.
Flipkart last raised USD 2–2.5 billion from Japan’s SoftBank via its USD 100 billion Vision Fund in August. The deal made SoftBank the largest shareholder in Flipkart.