CoinSwitch announces completion of maiden ESOP buyback programme

On March 21, 2022, crypto unicorn CoinSwitch Kuber announced the completion of its first Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) buyback. With its first buyback, CoinSwitch has become one of the only two unicorn crypto startups from India, alongside crypto exchange CoinDCX, to announce ESOP buyback.

Ashish Singhal, CEO and Co-founder of CoinSwitch, said, "The equity buyback programme is a small effort to acknowledge our employees' contribution to the phenomenal growth of CoinSwitch."

"Over 15 million users trust CoinSwitch in their investment journey, making us the largest crypto app. We meet and exceed our targets in India because of the amazing team and shall continue to launch similar liquidity events as part of our commitment to creating wealth for all," he added.

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Here are key takeaways from the ESOP buyback announcement:

• ESOPs are employee benefit plans that offer employees an ownership stake in the company for negligible or less cost. Once the ESOPs are offered, they are placed in a trust fund for a fixed period of time, which is known as the vesting period. Employees work with the organisation during the vesting period to avail the ownership of stock by exercising the ESOP. Once the vesting period expires, the employees can exercise their ESOPs by purchasing or selling their shares and the company can enable a buyback option.

• In September 2021, ConSwitch became a crypto unicorn and raised $260 million in the Series C funding round from American venture capital firms Coinbase Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz. Investors including Tiger Global, Sequoia Capital, Ribbit Capital, and Paradigm were also part of the Series C funding.

• The number of registered users on the CoinSwitch app doubled in the last year — from one million to 15 million — and now, it intends to add more asset classes and financial products to its platform in order to become a wealthtech hub in the country.

• The company aims to 'make money equal for all' and has been working to educate and enable a secure and safe platform for individuals to make informed decisions around crypto.