Used car retailer Spinny expands its ESOP pool size to $45 Mn

Full-stack used car retailing platform Spinny has expanded its employees stock ownership plan or ESOP pool size to $45 million, joining the likes of several early and growth-stage startups which have increased their ESOP size in 2021.

The Gurugram-based company has passed a special resolution to alter its existing ESOP Scheme to increase the number of shares in its ESOP pool to 36,353 options worth Rs 335.82 crore or $45 million, regulatory filings show.

With this Spinny has joined the likes of Paytm, ShareChat, OfBusiness, Unacademy, Kutumb and Bijak which have cumulatively expanded their pool to the tune of $170 million in 2021.

This year has been quite rewarding for employees working in startups across stages in terms of encashing ESOPs held by them. According to Fintrackr’s research, companies such as Udaan, ShareChat, Razorpay, CRED and several others had already bought stocks to the tune of $73 million held by employees in the first half of 2021 or H1 2021. 

Meanwhile, Zerodha’s plans of a  $27 million ESOP buyback is reportedly progressing too. 

According to experts tracking hiring and employees management space, there will be more ESOP allocation, expansion and buyback in the second half of 2021 or H2 2021.

Flipkart also announced $80 million for ESOP buyback in the coming weeks. SoftBank-backed Whatfix, which recently raised $100 million in its Series D round, is buying back ESOPs worth  $4.3 million. Ronnie Screwvala-led upGrad also announced its maiden ESOP liquidity event worth $29.5 million.

The ESOP expansion scheme at Spinny comes concurrently with the company’s latest $108 million round. The company was reportedly valued at around $800 million during the Series D round led by Tiger Global Management.

Spinny is also among the few startups that have raised three back to back rounds within a period of 18-24 months. The list includes Inshorts, Animall, Kutumb, Apna, Trell, Classplus among several others.