Neo-Banking Startup NiYO Unveils ESOPs Buyback Plan For 100 Employees

Bengaluru-based neo-banking startup NiYO Solutions, on Wednesday (December 9), announced an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) buyback plan to reward 100 employees, who have completed two years in the company. The company will buy back upto 25% of vested stocks from all its eligible employees.

Commenting on this development, NiYO cofounder and CEO Vinay Bagri said, “Employees are the biggest asset for any company. Both cofounder Viren [Virender Bisht] and I have been employees for the first 15 years of our life and that helps us to resonate with our employees’ sentiments.”

“In the last eight months, our team has worked relentlessly towards meeting the company’s goals and objectives. With their unparalleled rigour and perseverance, we have been able to get our business better than pre-covid level. Our ESOPs buyback offering is a humble attempt to reward our employees,” Bagri added.

Back in July, NiYO had offered 10-12% salary hikes and bonuses to all its employees. The company offered ESOPs to eligible employees, taking the total stock grants to over INR 100 Cr.

Besides NiYO, logistics services provider Shadowfax Technologies, food aggregator business Swiggy, wealth management platform Zerodha, epharmacy startup PharmaEasy, used car marketplace Cars24 announced ESOPs buyback plan recently.

NiYO Solutions was founded in 2015 by banking industry expert and IIM Calcutta alumnus Bagri and mobile application and payments expert Virender Bisht. NiYO aims to create a technology enabled and value-added product and service offering layer over the existing banking infrastructure, to offer a comprehensive digital banking proposition to its retail and SME customer base.

At present, the fintech startup offers two kinds of products: Benefits and Payroll. Both of these are intended primarily for white-collar employers and corporates. Earlier this year, the company acquired mutual funds platform Goalwise to launch a vertical under the brand name ‘NiYO Money’.

NiYO Money is headed by Goalwise founders Swapnil Bhaskar, Ankur Choudhary and Savitri Bobd. It offers financial solutions like robo advisory, auto investments in domestic stocks and mutual funds. NiYO operates out of Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi, and has sales presences in more than 20 states and union territories.

The company claims to have a customer base of over 2 Mn and more than 9K corporates. The company has raised about $49 Mn from marquee investors like Social+Capital, JS Capital and Prime Venture Partners.

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