Swiggy announces two liquidity events over 2 years for employees with ESOPs

Swiggy and its Board have decided to institute a one-of-its-kind programme that will let employees holding Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) participate in two distinct liquidity events in the next two years, in July 2022 and July 2023.

The entire exercise is expected to be worth $35-40 million at the company’s current valuation.

The programme will be open to all employees holding ESOPs.

Swiggy in July closed a $1.25 billion financing round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Prosus, taking its post-money valuation to $5.5 billion.

Employees will benefit from any potential value increase at the time of the liquidity in 2022 and 2023 while giving them the certainty of liquidity.

The announcement comes on the back of Swiggy’s food delivery business surpassing pre-Covid levels, non-food businesses witnessing robust growth, and the latest fundraise of $1.25 billion announced in July 2021.

“Swiggy has built a business that has democratized food delivery and convenience. As Swiggy grows, we want our team to grow with us, and enjoy the fruits of their hard work and valuable contributions. This is an industry-first initiative whereby we are democratizing wealth creation by enabling all our ESOP holding employees to participate in our committed liquidity events in 2022 and 2023. More importantly, by giving them visibility on the ESOP liquidity, Swiggsters hold the option and flexibility to plan their cash flow and investments,” said Girish Menon, head, Human Resources at Swiggy.

These will be the third (July 2022) and fourth (July 2023) such liquidity events held by Swiggy. The first one was held in June 2018 and the second one in November 2020.

On November 9, 2020, Swiggy commissioned its second ESOP liquidity programme via secondary sale. The worth of that exercise was estimated to be in the range of $7-9 million.