After seed round, Jodo carves out ESOP scheme

The Indian startup ecosystem has seen a surge in adoption, allotment, expansion and buyback of employee stock option Plan or ESOP in 2020. While over a dozen successful and growth-stage startups have rewarded their employees through stocks in the ongoing calendar year, early-stage startups are also introducing an ESOP scheme to retain their workforce.

Joining the likes of Simsim, Fleetx, MaxWholesale and WMall, early-stage fintech startup Jodo has also introduced ESOP plans.

The Bengaluru-based startup’s board has passed a special resolution to adopt JODO Employee Stock Option Plan 2020 which comprises 1,276 equity shares, regulatory filings show. As per Fintrackr’s estimate, the newly adopted ESOP plan makes up around 7.6% stake in the company. The whole ESOP pool is valued at around Rs 9 crore. 

Floated by Matrix Venture Partners’ alumni Raghav Nagarajan, Atulya Bhat and Koustav Dey, Jodo had recently scooped up Rs 28.5 crore in its seed funding round from Matrix, SAIF Partners and a clutch of angel investors. 

Jodo currently helps parents pay their children’s monthly school fees. The less than a year-old startup works with multiple banks and NBFCs to provide the alternate way of paying school fees through EMI without charging interest or any collateral. However, it aims to be a full-stack financial service platform in future to serve the needs of middle-income households in urban India.

Besides managing school fees, Jodo also runs a reward programme JODOjoy. The program, in partnership with edtech companies such as Vedantu, Toppr, Leap Learner and Smartivity, provides different offers to consumers.

Unlike past, early-stage startups have been proactive in introducing ESOP schemes as it enables them to retain talents and gives a sense of ownership amongst employees. Over the past couple of years, companies like Paytm, Meesho, Swiggy and many others facilitated buyback and allowed employees to divest ESOPs. Such transactions have invigorated the faith of employees multi-fold in stocks.