Swiggy Initiates Second Tranche Of ESOP Liquidity Programme

Swiggy has initiated the second tranche of its committed employee stock option plan (ESOP) liquidity programme worth $50 Mn, the foodtech giant said in a blog post on Monday (July 24).

As part of the planned liquidity programme, Swiggy employees will be eligible to receive liquidity totalling up to $50 Mn against their ESOPs. More than 2,000 employees are said to be eligible for the liquidity programme, including employees from Dineout, which Swiggy acquired last year.

The ESOP liquidity programme was announced in 2021, with two tranches completed in 2022 and 2023. The first tranche, initiated in June 2022, was worth $23 Mn and benefitted around 900 employees. Overall, this is Swiggy’s fourth liquidity event since 2018.

“Two years ago, Swiggy announced a one-of-its-kind ESOP program to enable consistent wealth creation for employees through two distinct liquidity events in 2022 and 2023,” said Girish Menon, head of HR at Swiggy.

Menon added, “Our team is Swiggy’s most valuable asset, and we are happy that macroeconomic conditions notwithstanding, we’re able to keep our commitment of sharing Swiggy’s success and growth through these wealth creation opportunities.”

The foodtech giant, which announced turning EBITDA positive in its food delivery business as of March 2023, also said it integrated Dineout with the main product.

Swiggy also entered India’s food and grocery retail market by acquiring FMCG retail distribution company LYNK Logistics. LYNK will continue to operate as an independent business post-acquisition. LYNK enables FMCG brands to grow their retail presence through its network of 100,000+ retail stores across eight cities in India.

“With this acquisition, Swiggy enters India’s food and grocery retail market, which is amongst the world’s largest and fastest-growing, estimated to be more than $570 Bn in size and expected to grow at 8% year-on-year,” the company said.

The ESOP liquidity programme at Swiggy comes against the backdrop of big-name startups enabling wealth creation for its employees. 

For one, Flipkart is paying out $700 Mn to thousands of its employees. Certain employees with ESOPs at the ecommerce giant are subject to a payout as fintech decacorn PhonePe separated from Flipkart, which resulted in the value of the ESOPs increasing significantly, prompting the ecommerce giant to initiate the payout.

Last week, fintech giant Paytm also issued 1.7 Mn additional ESOPs under its ESOP programme announced in 2019.