Urban Company creates additional ESOP worth Rs 129 Cr

Home service marketplace Urban Company has created additional employee stock ownership options or ESOP, regulatory filings show. The Gurugram-based company has passed a special resolution to grant additional ESOP exercisable into 11,022 equity shares.

As per Fintrackr’s estimates, the new addition is worth Rs 129.03 crore.

The company has also altered the terms of ESOP Scheme 2015 to provide accelerated vesting for options that have been granted on or prior to November 30, 2020, or any other options, granted after November 30, 2020, with the specific approval of the board. According to the company, options granted pursuant to this ESOP 2015 would vest not earlier than one year and not more than five years from the date of grant of such options.

The regulatory filings further say that all existing options that are not vested and have been held for a period in excess of one calendar year from their date of grant, shall be vested immediately either prior to listing or in the event of the strategic sale. 

The Scheme explains strategic sale as the sale of all the shares of the company held by qualified investors to an intended purchaser. These qualified investors include Accel India, Elevation Capital, Bessemer India, Steadview Capital, Vy Capital and Internet Fund.

In August 2020, Urban Company had announced its employee stock sale program worth $5 million or Rs 37.5 crore. The company’s employees were given the option to liquidate their vested ESOPs which were purchased by Vy Capital through a secondary transaction. 

Urban Company has executed three ESOP sales programs. The first ESOP sale event was completed in June 2017 followed by another one in December 2018. The company claims to have offered stock ownership to 670 employees.

Backed by the likes of Tiger Global and Ratan Tata, Urban Company has raised over $190 million across equity and debt rounds. The company was valued at around $933 million during its Series E round in August 2019 and is on the brink of turning into a unicorn in the next financing round.

Founded by Abhiraj Singh Bhal, Raghav Chandra and Varun Khaitan, the seven-year-old company operates in over two dozen Indian cities besides overseas operations in cities such as Sydney, Singapore, Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Riyadh. According to the company’s website, it has over 25,000 professionals on its platform serving around 50 lakh customers.