Razorpay Allots ESOPs Worth INR 1 Lakh Each To 3K Employees

Peak XV Partners-backed fintech unicorn Razorpay has announced the allocation of employee stock options (ESOPs) worth INR 1 Lakh to each of its current employees to mark its 10th anniversary.

The Bengaluru-based startup has a headcount of more than 3,000, with employees across all levels and functions set to benefit from the fresh ESOPs.

“It is uncommon for companies to undertake such initiatives on a large scale, particularly by uniformly allocating fresh ESOPs to all current employees across all levels. For many employees, this marks their first-ever ESOP allocation,” the company said in a statement.

Notably, Razorpay also undertook two ESOP buyback programmes in the past to provide liquidity to employees. As part of its first ESOP buyback in 2018, 140 employees liquidated their vested shares. It unveiled its second ESOP buyback worth $75 Mn in 2022, which benefitted 650 current and former employees.

Founded in 2014 by Shashank Kumar and Harshil Mathur, Razorpay is an omnichannel payments and banking platform. Over the years, the startup has forayed into SME payroll management, banking, lending, payments, insurance, among others.

Razorpay is among the growing list of startups that are flipping their corporate headquarters back to India. In February this year, Razorpay cofounder and CEO Harshil Mathur told Inc42 that the fintech company will shift its domicile back to India from the US by the end of 2024.

The reverse flipping is in line with the fintech major’s plans to float an initial public offering in the next two years.

As part of this, the fintech major is undertaking a major restructuring exercise, looking to merge its six Indian units into a single holding company by the name of Razorpay Software India. Upon completion of the restructuring, Razorpay will likely have to cough up $200 Mn in taxes to the US government.

Razorpay reported a 365% jump in its net profit to INR 33.5 Cr in the financial year 2023-24 (FY24) from INR 7.2 Cr in the previous year. Operating revenue rose 9% year-on-year to INR 2,475 Cr.

This comes at a time when India’s fintech sector is under intense regulatory scrutiny, which has disrupted operations of several startups including the likes of ZestMoney, Instamojo, Jupiter, Slice, PayU, and Paytm.