Razorpay has announced its Fourth and Largest ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan) Sale for its 650 existing and former employees as part of a $75 Mn (INR 578 Crore) transaction, irrespective of ranks. This is led by key investors, Lightspeed Venture Partners along with participation from Moore Strategic Ventures, who will subsequently join the company's cap table.

ESOP sales in the startup industry have been a source of significant wealth creation for employees but it is not something that companies usually practice as an annual event. It is also not something many companies extend to include eligible former employees at the same rate as existing employees.

Razorpay has created an industry benchmark by becoming one of India's youngest startups to have facilitated the ESOP sale consecutively for the last three years.  Last year, the sale was worth $10Mn (INR 73 Crore). This year, the company looks to benefit employees across roles – be it software engineers, product managers, customer experience agents, sales, and administrative staff. Current and former employees, as young as 22 who hold vested stocks of the company, will be eligible to sell up to 30% of their vested ESOP shares. 

Razorpay strongly believes that its employees are quintessential to the growth of the business and ESOP sales are one of the many tangible ways in which Razorpay extends its gratitude to its employees.

Commenting on the fourth ESOP sale, Harshil Mathur, CEO & Co-founder, Razorpay, said, "Today, we take this opportunity to honor our team but really, the honor is Shashank's (co-founder) & mine. The last two years have been challenging for each one of us, and despite the challenges, our Razors stuck together and collectively guided the company through massive growth. I feel nothing but gratitude to see how every teammate in the company believes Razorpay to be their own family and sees it through every challenge. These ESOPs are a way to give back to our Razors and a small effort in making a difference in their lives."

He added, "In the last year, Razorpay grew over 300% and we plan to achieve $90 Bn TPV (Total Payment Volume) by the end of 2022 - thanks to the efforts of our Team, the significant digital adoption by small businesses who trusted us, and investors who believed in our vision and purpose. And towards building the financial ecosystem for millions of small and medium businesses, we are elated to add marquee tech investors - Lightspeed Venture Partners and Moore Strategic Ventures as partners in our journey."

Aditya Sharma, Partner, Growth Equity, Lightspeed Ventures said, "Razorpay is one of the most exciting companies in the payments and financial technology ecosystem today. The company's growth has been shaped by their exceptional management team and industry-leading product innovation and engineering capability. The Company is pioneering solutions across neo-banking, SME payments, and workflow-related platforms while continuing to strengthen its leadership position in the enterprise segment. We look forward to bringing in strong synergies and resources from across the global Lightspeed platform to serve Razorpay in the next phase of their growth journey."

Razorpay conducted its first ESOP sale in November 2018, making it one of the very few early-stage startups to conduct a liquidity event for its 140 employees then. The second and third ESOP sales were conducted in November 2019 and March 2021, during which 400 and 750 employees respectively were eligible. To date, the company has awarded ESOPs to 1940 existing and former employees across levels.