Swiggy has decided to start a programme that will allow employees holding Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) to participate in two different liquidity events in the next two years -- in July 2022 and July 2023. The entire exercise is expected to be around $35-40 million at the current valuation.

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This programme will be open to all employees holding ESOPs. The food delivery platform in July 2021 closed a $1.25-billion financing round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Pross, taking its post-money valuation to $5.5 billion.

Talking about the programme, Girish Menon, Head of HR, said, “ Swiggy has built a business that has democratised food delivery and convenience. As Swiggy grows, we want our team to grow with us, and enjoy the fruits of their hard work and valuable contributions.”

He added that this is a first such initiative whereby the company will be democratising wealth-creating by enabling all their ESOP holding employees to participate in the committed liquidity events in 2022 and 2023.

The exercise will happen at the current valuation of $5.5 billion, and the employees will benefit from any potential value increase at the time of these liquidity events in the next two years. The company is in talks with investors to raise $500-600 million at a valuation of over $10 billion, giving it the power to compete with its main rival Zomato, which was listed on the markets recently.

While Zomato is mainly focussing on its food delivery business, Swiggy is expanding its other venture of instant grocery service, Instamart.

Also read: Grocery delivery lessons that Swiggy learnt, and why Zomato failed

The liquidity events, expected to take place in July 2022 and 2023 will be the third and fourth such events for the company. The first one was held in 2018 and the second was held in November 2020. On November 9, 2020, the company commissioned its second ESOP liquidity programme through a second sale. The worth of that exercise was estimated to be around $7-9 million.

(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)