Jupiter Expands ESOP Pool With Additional $5 Mn Stock Options

Neobanking soonicorn Jupiter has expanded its employee stock option plan (ESOP) with the allotment of 21,655 equity shares to its employees worth INR 40.78 Cr ($4.9 Mn). 

According to Jupiter’s filing with the Registrar of Companies (RoC), the issued shares were allotted to Jupiter Employee Welfare Trust, whose trustee is Jupiter’s founder and CEO Jitendra Gupta. Each equity share is valued at INR 18,826.29, with INR 10 being the nominal value per share and the rest being the premium value. 

Many entities in the startup ecosystem have also turned bullish on ESOP allotment. While Zomato, Delhivery and Honasa have made ESOP allotments within the first five days of August, more startups like Paytm, Adda247, Yubi , Nykaa, and TBO Tek also enhanced their employee stock options in the last month. 

The additional stock options for talent engaged by the startup ecosystem comes at a time when Indian startups’ employer profile has been severely dented due to the mass layoffs in the past. 

According to Inc42’s Indian Startup Founder Survey 2023, around 43% of the over 400 Indian startup founders surveyed felt that the string of layoffs hurted talent’s enthusiasm to join a startup and thus will elect to not associate with them.  

The same survey discovered that about 55% of founders are relying on the appeal of ESOPs to lure workforce to join them.

For Jupiter, this comes over two years after the company rolled out its ESOPs plan worth over $4 Mn. Back then, Gupta said that the company’s ESOPs instil a “true feeling of ownership amongst individuals and are the key to creating long-lasting, generational wealth.

Founded in 2019 by Gupta, Jupiter offers a range of financial services, including debit cards, SIPs, mutual funds, personalised savings options, expense management, and UPI payments. 

The startup raised INR 20 Cr (about $2.4 Mn) for its non-banking financial (NBFC) arm Amica Finance from Peak XV Partners, Matrix Partners India, BEE Accelerate Fund, QED Fund, Global Founders Capital, Tiger Global, among others.

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