Lendingkart expands ESOP pool by adding Rs 42 Cr worth stock

Digital lending platform Lendingkart has expanded its existing ESOPs pool by adding Rs 42 crore worth fresh stock. The Temasek-backed company has joined the list of large-scaled companies including Oyo, Byju’s, Pine Labs and ShareChat who have expanded their ESOPs pool recently.

Lendingkart’s board has passed a resolution to alter the existing ESOP scheme “lending kart ESOP 2015” to increase the number of options from 5,997 shares to 12,975 shares, regulatory filings show. Each option exercisable to convert into 1 equity share. 

According to Fintrackr’s estimate, the new ESOP pool is now worth nearly Rs 78 crore.

Lendingkart is a six-year-old platform that offers loans to small businesses. The firm lends on its own book as well as third party lenders. So far, it has raised $280 million in debt and equity rounds. In May this year, Lendingkart had raised Rs 319 crore from existing investors Fullerton Financial Holdings, Bertelsmann India and India Quotient.

The expansion of ESOPs pool would bolster the confidence of employees in the Ahmedabad-based firm that had laid off 30% (300 employees) of its workforce due to pandemic and annual performance audit.

While lending platforms have been facing a slowdown in disbursal of loans due to pandemic, Lendingkart claimed to disburse funds worth over Rs 2,500 crore to micro and small businesses in FY20. Its gross income jumped by 113% to Rs 465 crore in FY20 as compared to FY19. 

According to the company, it had disbursed 53,000 loans in the last fiscal. Since its inception in 2014, Lendingkart has claimed to disburse loans worth Rs 5,500 crore and supported about 90,000 businesses.

In the past three months, Byju’s and Oyo had expanded their ESOPs pool by adding Rs 1500 crore and Rs 1050 crore worth ESOPs respectively. Zetwerk, Shuttl, Wmall also added more options to their existing pool.