A91 Partners-backed Soothe Healthcare expands its ESOP pool

Homegrown personal hygiene company Soothe Healthcare has expanded its ESOP pool size by adding fresh options. The company has joined several growth-stage startups that have expanded their ESOP pool in the past few months.

The board at Soothe Healthcare has passed a special resolution to expand its ESOP pool by adding 7,00,000 options for its employees, the regulatory filing with the Registrar of Companies (RoC) shows.

The Delhi-Based company already has an ESOP pool of 4,82,500 options, which has increased to 11,82,500 after adding new options. As per Fintrackr’s estimates, the new options are worth Rs 5 crore, taking the total ESOP pool of the startup to Rs 8.5 crore ($1.1 million).

Soothe Healthcare raised $13.6 million in its extended Series C round led by Gulf Islamic Investments (GII), Northern Arc, and KKR-backed Incred in August last year. It has raised around Rs 230 crore or $31.5 million to date.

Founded by Sahil Dharia, Soothe Healthcare is engaged in manufacturing, distributing, and marketing personal hygiene products. It also does community work in the form of awareness programs on menstrual hygiene for women in rural areas.

Soothe Healthcare’s operating revenue grew 2.4X to Rs 79 crore in FY21, as per its annual report filed with the Registrar of Companies. However, the company booked a loss of Rs 34.92 crore in FY21. Its FY22 results are yet to be disclosed.

As per data compiled by Fintrackr, nearly 20 Indian startups have expanded their ESOP pool in 2022 so far. The list includes Minimalist, Waycool, Jar, upGrad, Amagi, Scripbox, NoBroker, DealShare, Money View, Purplle, LEAP, Wiz Freight, Ather Energy, Ninjacart, Ecom Express, Pine Labs and VeGrow among others.

Edtech startup Bhanzu, which recently scooped up $15 million in Series A round, also expanded its ESOP pool. Entrackr had exclusively reported the development.

While the expansion of the ESOP pool in Indian startups can be seen on a regular basis, the ESOP buyback trend has tapered down during the second half of 2022. Fintrackr’s data shows that more than 20 startups announced ESOP buyback, liquidity or sale worth around $200 million in the first six months of 2022 or H1 2022 while the second half (H2 2022) saw only one buyback i.e. Orange Health.