Exclusive: Exotel expands ESOP pool by $35.5 Mn

Cloud telephony firm Exotel has expanded its employee stock option (ESOP) pool by adding fresh options worth over $35 million. The expansion has come almost a year after its $40 million series D round.

The board at Exotel has passed a special resolution to grant 42,236 employee stock options (ESOP) to its employees, as per the company’s regulatory filing with the Registrar of Companies (RoC).

According to the filings, every option will be converted into equity shares. As per Fintrackr’s estimates, the newly added options are worth around Rs 291 crores or $35.5 million.

Founded by Shivakumar Ganesan, Ishwar Sridharan, Vijay Sharma, and Siddharth Ramesh in 2011, Exotel offers voice and SMS contact center capabilities for businesses to manage their customer engagement over the cloud.

Exotel has persevered through the years. The 11-year-old startup had struggled to raise funds and took eight years to raise its Series B round. And then between January 2020 and 2021, it scooped up $75 million across three funding rounds. In total, it has raised $100 million to date.

Exotel’s operating revenue registered at Rs 119 crore in FY21. As per Fintrackr’s analysis, telecommunication services were the major source of revenue for Exotel. The company also registered a profit of Rs 10.43 crore in the fiscal year ending March 2021. In FY22, the company slipped into losses (Rs 13.8 crore) citing investments made to fund acquisitions and growth. The firm is yet to file its audited annual financial statement for FY22.

Exotel claimed that it was looking to hit an annual revenue rate (ARR) of $200 million over the next 5 years and planned to increase its headcount by 200 over the next 12 months. The company also eyes IPO in the next four years.

Exotel directly competes with Knowlarity, MyOperator, and a few others. Sequoia-backed Knowlarity was acquired by conversational messaging unicorn Gupshup in a $100 million deal in February this year.