Social Commerce Startup Trell Concludes INR 12 Cr ESOP Buyback

Bengaluru-based social commerce platform Trell has concluded an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) buyback worth INR 12 Cr ($1.6 Mn).

Founded in 2017 by Pulkit Agrawal, Prashant Sachan, Arun Lodhi, and Bimal Kartheek Rebba, Trell is a community-based platform that features video-based content in various Indian languages. In August 2020, it had raised $11.4 Mn (nearly INR 85.3 Cr) in a Series A funding round led by KTB Network.

It claims to have over 60 Mn monthly active users (MAUs) and content in multiple categories across different languages including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Marathi, Kannada, Bengali, Gujarati, Oriya, Bhojpuri, Punjabi and English.

Trell has raised a total of over $62 Mn in venture capital from investors including Mirae Asset Ventures, H&M Group, Samsung Ventures, LB Investments and others. 

“Our people have stood with us during the most unprecedented times and their continuous support made this possible today. This is only but a small gesture of gratitude for the team by assisting them in their wealth-creation journey, while they are having a tremendous positive influence in the ecosystem with their contributions at Trell,” said Pulkit Agrawal, cofounder, and CEO of Trell.

In a bid to tackle attrition and attract talent, Indian startups have kicked off an  ESOP buyback phenomenon. An increasing number of them are using ESOPs as a tool for employee retention as well as employee wealth creation.

In October last year, Meesho, another social commerce platform, had announced a $5.5 Mn employee stock ownership liquidity program for all eligible current and former employees with vested stocks.

This development came just a month after it had raised $570 Mn in Series F funding from Fidelity Management And Research Company, B Capital Group, Prosus Ventures, SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Facebook.

Just weeks later, Meesho has introduced an annual ‘MeeSOP’ program to facilitate stock ownership for all its employees, irrespective of seniority.

Last week, Bengaluru-based logistics startup Porter implemented an ESOP liquidation plan worth $5 Mn, allowing eligible current and former employees to sell their holdings.