Bangalore based edtech startup Unacademy announced on Thursday that the firm will undertake an ESOP buyback program in December. Slated to be launched on December 10^th, the buyback will count all vested ESOP of current and former employees; the buyback pool will be between Rs 25-30 crore. All employees who have been with the organization for a year will be eligible to be part of the program.                   

In a statement the company said, "All vested ESOPs until December 10, 2020, will be eligible for the buyback, and current and exited employees may liquidate between 25 and 100 percent of vested ESOPs based on a specified scheme”.                                                                                 

India’s second edutech unicorn, had earlier floated an ESOP buyback program one tenth the size of the current pool in September 2019. The company has since raised $110 million from Facebook & General Atlantic and $150 million from Softbank. The company is now valued to be worth $1.4 billion.           

The edtech sector has been one of the major benefiters of the global pandemic with an increase in investments in the sector along with major acquisitions taking place.      

The country has also seen an increase in ESOP buybacks within the year. The Unacademy ESOP buyback is the fifth one of the year coming at the heels of Zerodha, FirstCry, MPL and Meesho allowing their employees to liquidate their vested ESOP. Additionally over a dozen startups such as Paytm, Oyo, Zomato, Byju’s, Pine Labs, ShareChat, Shuttl, Fleetx and Jodo have either allotted, expanded or introduced ESOP plans in 2020.

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