Vedantu announces $3 million ESOP liquidity event

Online tutoring platform Vedantu has announced its first liquidity event for shares under the Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP). 

Active employees and top leadership with vested ESOP shares will be eligible for the $3 million liquidity event, while founders will not be participating in the event, said a statement issued by the company. It did not specify how many employees stand to benefit from the liquidity event.

The startup turned into a unicorn in September when it raised $100 million in a Series E round led by Singapore-based impact investing fund, ABC World Asia, backed by Temasek. According to reports, the company was looking to close an additional $10 to $20 million as part of the round.

“As Vedantu grows, we want our employees to grow with us as well as they are equal contributors towards this growth. By growing the technology, engineering and product teams across all functions, ESOPs provide employees with high ownership, while providing more opportunities for financial growth. We want to enable long-term wealth creation for our employees and recognise their contribution and commitment,” said Vamsi Krishna, CEO and Co-founder of Vedantu in a statement. 

Vedantu is the third edtech unicorn of 2021, the other two being upGradand Eruditus.

It was founded in 2011 by Vamsi, Pulkit Jain, Anand Prakash, and Saurabh Saxena. Saurabh later moved on to set up his own venture, Uable. Vedantu offers live classes for K-12 and online test prep segments and said that it had recorded a 400 percent growth over the previous year in the number of paying students at 2 lakh. 

Apart from Vedantu, multiple startups have announced ESOP liquidity events this year to retain and reward talent. The startup unicorns that have seen a liquidity event this year include Licious, Meesho, upGrad, and Unacademy, to name a few.