1947 Tech 🇮🇳: 181
It’s raining Esops in India this year
1. It’s raining Esops in India this year
Startups are bending over backwards to sweeten deals to hire and retain employees in an increasingly competitive market.
Year to date, 32 Indian startups have spent close to ₹3,000 crore, or about $440 million, to buy back employee stock options (Esops), a VCCircle analysis showed.
Esop buybacks have become a popular way for startups to incentivise workers on the hunt for new opportunities that offer growth, higher payouts, and the remote work option as the economy rebounds after pandemic-related curbs were eased.
In addition, large fundraisings during the year have helped them announce generous buybacks. One in three startups that announced Esop buybacks turned unicorns this year.
This year, startups that offered to buy back Esops include BrowserStack, UpGrad, ShareChat, Zetwerk, Meesho, Licious, Vedantu, Moglix, PharmEasy, Acko and Cred.
2. Indian SaaS Startups Raise Record $4.5 Billion In 2021: Bain Report
Indian software-as-a-service startups have raised a record $4.5 billion from investors in 2021, nearly three times the previous year, led by innovation, access to capital, and a larger market size, according to a report from consultancy firm Bain and Co.
The year also created six SaaS unicorns being valued at over a billion dollars or more. This was as many as the last two years put together, indicating an increased momentum in the space as they address global markets, predominantly in the US and Europe.
“What is interesting is that you are seeing scale from Indian SaaS. There are many companies with $25–30 million ARR (annual recurring revenue), and quite a few with over $50 million and even $100 million,” Aditya Shukla, partner at Bain, told Moneycontrol.
“These are companies that have not just found product-market fit (the first sign that a company’s product is viable) but have also scaled. They have found acceptance from a wide variety of customers and buyers,” he said.
Indian SaaS Startups Raise Record $4.5 Billion In 2021: Bain Report
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