B2B SaaS fintech company Perfios has announced a buyback of ESOPs worth Rs 154 crore (approximately $18.5 million) from its 135 current and former employees. With this, Perfios has joined a list of handful of growth-stage companies that have bought back employees’ stock this year.
Perfios disclosed that the buyback has resulted in 62 individuals becoming millionaires, and among the beneficiaries of the buyback are 80 women employees.
The development comes soon after Perfios’ $229 million Series D round led by private equity investor Kedaara Capital through a combination of primary and secondary sale.
The company has raised around $360 million to date and is likely to join the unicorn club in the next funding round.
Perfios helps in the aggregation and analysis of financial data such as bank statements, tax data, and business financials to generate reports across the areas of credit assessment, monitoring, fraud, and banking data aggregation. It has acquired more than 100 large clients across banks, NBFCs, digital lending platforms, mutual fund companies, insurance companies, and human resources.
Last month, the Bengaluru-based firm also acquihired Chennai-based open finance platform Fego.ai, which offers an open-finance product stack to developers.
While the number of ESOP buybacks saw a downward trend in 2023, the amount of buyback and payout has created a new record. As per data compiled by TheKredible, more than 80 startups have bought back ESOPs worth over $1.45 billion since January 2020.
In the ongoing calendar year, foodtech major Swiggy executed the second tranche of its committed ESOP liquidity program worth $50 million. In July, Walmart-owned Flipkart announced a $700 million worth ESOP payout for its employees. B2B delivery and shared mobility startup Zypp Electric and wedding and matrimony services startup Betterhalf also joined the ESOP buyback list.
