Simplilearn completes first ever ESOP buyback worth Rs 48.74 crore

Simplilearn, the platform for digital economy skills training, announced its first-ever Employee Stock Option Plan (ESOP) buyback worth Rs 48.74 crore. This event is the first time ESOPs have been bought back by the company. The buyback was undertaken as part of the recent investment by Blackstone earlier this year.

The company had offered active employees to liquidate up to 25 per cent of their vested ESOPs as part of this buyback. 65 per cent of the active employees with ESOPs liquidated their options as part of this buyback process. The company also rewarded all these employees with additional new ESOPs for their continued contribution to its growth and their help in establishing Simplilearn as the World's No. 1 Online Bootcamp.

“Having launched our ESOPs plan in 2012, this was an ideal time to offer liquidity on the same. For many of our employees, this was their first opportunity in their professional lives to own or liquidate ESOPs,” said Krishna Kumar, co-founder and chief executive officer, Simplilearn. “We are happy to be able to remunerate our employees for their contribution with the buyback. This also provides a great chance to create wealth, given that we also issued new, additional ESOPs for the future.”

In July this year, private equity giant Blackstone invested $250 million in Simplilearn, a leading online learning ‘bootcamp’ based in India offering digital skills training and courses to working professionals all over the world.

Deriving over 60 per cent of business currently from international markets, Simplilearn is on an aggressive growth path and is further strengthening its global team. With employee wealth creation as a key part of the people strategy, Simplilearn is hiring leaders across all levels in the Indian and U.S. markets.

This hiring includes the recent addition of Deborah Quazzo to the company’s board of directors and the appointment of Saurabh Arya as the Vice President- Simplilearn Enterprise, with many others joining in the next few months.

“Continuing on our growth path, with the Blackstone investment and renowned leaders joining us, we look forward to expanding our offerings and the corresponding employee base significantly over the next couple of months,” said Krishna. “With enterprise and university partnerships in the pipeline, in both India and globally, we foresee a significant boost in Simplilearn’s business.”

Simplilearn’s programs span all essential digital skills such as AI, Data, Full-stack, Cloud, and Digital Marketing and across 30 critical digital economy roles in an enterprise, with comprehensive learning paths. These programs are co-created with leading universities like MIT and Caltech and leading industry partners like IBM, Microsoft Azure, and Facebook, ensuring the best learning outcomes. Simplilearn's platform has learners from 400 of the Fortune 500 companies. The Simplilearn engagement models with partners primarily provide solutions for New Hire On-Boarding, Role Aligned up-skilling with Organization-wide Digital Transformation Skill Development, and Leadership Development.