Swiggy's second ESOP liquidity event to benefit 2,000 employees

Bengaluru-based food tech major Swiggy has rolled out its second ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan) liquidity event worth nearly $27 million to $30 million, which will be concluded by the end of July. The event is likely to benefit nearly 2,000 current employees of the company. 

Employees of Swiggy holding shares vested on or before April 1, 2023 and employees of restaurant tech platform Dineout holding shares vested before July 1, 2023 are eligible to participate in the event. Swiggy acquired Dineout in May 2022. 

The event is a part of Swiggy’s announcement in 2021 on committing to hold two-year guaranteed events for ESOP liquidity. In 2022, the company held a liquidity event in June 2022, benefitting nearly 900 employees. Overall the company had set aside $50 million for the consecutive events. 

“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 in a statement. 

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

With the current event, Swiggy joins the list of rare startups which have held a liquidity event in 2023, with the ecosystem going through a funding winter. Recently, ecommerce major Flipkart announced a one-time payout of $700 million to employees holding ESOPs to compensate for the separation of PhonePe as a separate entity. 

Swiggy closed FY2023 with nearly $900 million in revenue according to annual filings made by its largest shareholder Prosus. Earlier this year, the company announced that it had turned EBITDA positive for its food delivery business as of March 2023. The company valued at $5.5 billion by Invesco, has been focused on improving unit economics for its quick commerce vertical Instamart and is aiming to go public by 2024.