Urban Company announces ESOP sale worth USD 5mn

Under this programme, employees of Urban Company, formerly UrbanClap, will be given the option to liquidate their vested employee stock options (ESOPs), which would be purchased through a secondary transaction by existing investor Vy Capital.

All existing employees who have vested ESOPs are eligible to participate in the current sale programme. Over 180 employees are eligible to participate in this programme, the company said in a statement.

"This is our third and largest ESOP sale event, and re-affirms our commitment towards creating a world-class ESOP programme. The previous two ESOP sale events were held in June 2017 and Dec 2018 respectively," said Abhiraj Singh Bhal, Co-founder of Urban Company.

"Additionally, Urban Company's ESOP programme has very employee friendly terms, such as an exercise price of Re 1, accelerated vesting, a flat 4 year vesting schedule (25 per cent each year) and an infinite hold period to exercise the ESOPs after the employee leaves the company. Approximately 450 employees, or 40 per cent of the company's full time staff have ESOPs, from customer service representatives to our SVPs," he said.

The latest ESOP sale values each ESOP at Rs 1.10 lakh which is the same price as the Series E secondary transaction which took place in June 2019.

At Urban Company, employees are awarded ESOPs at the time of recruitment, during an appraisal cycle, and as part of various internal recognition programmes, the statement said.