Fintech unicorn Razorpay has announced its fourth Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) sale worth $75 million. This transaction will be led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, along with participation from Moore Strategic Ventures, who will subsequently join the company’s cap table.

This ESOP buyback will benefit Razorpay’s 650 existing and former employees, irrespective of ranks. This year, the ESOP buyback will benefit employees across roles, including software engineers, product managers, customer experience agents, sales and administrative staff.

Current and former employees, as young as 22, who hold vested stocks of the company, will be eligible to sell up to 30 per cent of their vested ESOP shares. Razorpay has facilitated the ESOP sale consecutively for the last three years.  Last year, the sale was worth $10 million (₹73 crore). To date, the company has awarded ESOPs to 1940 existing and former employees across levels. 

Commenting on the fourth ESOP sale, Harshil Mathur, CEO & Co-founder, Razorpay, said: “Today, we take this opportunity to honour our team, but really the honor is Shashank’s (co-founder) and mine. The last two years have been challenging for each one of us, and despite the challenges, our Razors stuck together and collectively guided the company through massive growth. I feel nothing but gratitude to see how every teammate in the company believes Razorpay to be their own family and sees it through every challenge. These ESOPs are a way to give back to our Razors and a small effort in making a difference in their lives.”

He added that Razorpay grew over 300 per cent in the last year, and plans to achieve $90 billion TPV (Total Payment Volume) by the end of 2022. In December 2021, Razorpay raised $375 million as part of its Series F funding. This year, Razorpay forayed into the international markets with the acquisition of Malaysian fintech firm Curlec, and also closed its fifth acquisition by acquiring payment technology start-up, iZealiant. Razorpay plans to increase its merchant count from 8 million to 10 million by 2022.

Aditya Sharma, Partner, Growth Equity, Lightspeed Ventures, said: “Razorpay is one of the most-exciting companies in the payments and financial technology ecosystem today. The company’s growth has been shaped by their exceptional management team and industry-leading product innovation and engineering capability. The company is pioneering solutions across neo-banking, SME payments, and workflow-related platforms while continuing to strengthen its leadership position in the enterprise segment. We look forward to bringing in strong synergies and resources from across the global Lightspeed platform to serve Razorpay in the next phase of their growth journey.”

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