Exclusive: SoftBank Backed Juspay Increases ESOP Pool By 232X To INR 552 Cr

Bengaluru-based fintech startup Juspay has increased its ESOP pool scheme size by 232X.

According to an extraordinary general meeting dated on November 11, 2021, the board members of Juspay have passed a resolution to amend its Employee Stock Option Plan-2016 (ESOP 2016). 

The resolution hiked the ESOP to 48,56,161 from the existing 20,959 options. This translates that the startup adding an additional 48,35,202 ESOP options. 

The increased ESOP pool size will be now worth INR 552 Cr or $74 Mn (as per the current exchange rate). Otherwise, the ESOP pool size would have been of INR 2.3 Cr or $320K. 

For calculating the current ESOP pool, we have taken the price of Series C CCPS at which Juspay raised $60 Mn from SoftBank and others last December. 

Justpay raised $60 Mn in its Series C led by SoftBank Vision Fund with participation from existing investors VEF and Wellington Management at a $460 Mn valuation.

This round of investment came almost one and half years later. In April 2020, Juspay had mopped $21.6 Mn in Series B round led by Sweden-based Vostok Emerging Finance with an investment of $13 Mn. During its Series B round, VEF joined Justpay’s board of directors.

Founded in 2012 by Vimal Kumar, Juspay offers a technology platform that unifies payment gateways to offer merchants a seamless, secure, reliable, end-to-end, enterprise-grade payment stack. 

The startup’s offerings include Justpay Safe– a payment browser, HyperSDK– a payment SDK (software development kit), Express Checkout— a payment orchestration platform, and an UPI option. 

Juspay claims to process over 11 Mn transactions per day and counts marquee clients such as Amazon, Flipkart, Swiggy, CRED, BigBasket and PharmEasy, among others. 

Juspay locks its horns with the likes of Prosus-backed BillDesk, and fintech unicorn Razorpay, CCAvenue, and PayU among others. 

According to an Inc42 Plus analysis, the country’s fintech sector stood second in raising funds last year with $7.4 Bn capital infusement. Razorpay, PineLabs, Jupiter, Zest Money, including Juspay picked up larger cheques in 2021, as Indians shifted more towards digital payments. The fintech sector witnessed a total of 260 deals in 2021 till December 4, 2021.