VC-backed ed-tech start-up Teachmint announces ESOP buyback programme

Teachmint Technologies Pvt Ltd, an education technology (ed-tech) start-up with a focus on tutor-student connectivity, has announced a plan with which its employees will be able to liquidate their vested ESOPs (employee stock ownership plans) against cash at any point of time over the span of a year, the company said in a statement

The company, which raised $78 million in a Series B funding round last month, has put forward continuous ESOP liquidity plans – CELP- to reward and recognise the contributions of its team. The decision has been made to inspire employees as the company aims to scale its current user base from 10 million to 100 million and more.  

“Teachmint has witnessed unprecedented growth since inception, and we believe it’s important to acknowledge and reward the contributions made by our team in this journey. Our team is our biggest moat and CELP is one of the many steps which we have taken to ensure we understand their changing needs and continue empowering them,” said Mihir Gupta, co-founder & CEO at Teachmint in the statement.  

Teachmint was founded by Gupta, Payoj Jain, Divyansh Barodia, and Anshuman Kumar. The four were previously with McKinsey, Roposo, Open, OYO, and Swiggy.  

Teachmint is a mobile-first, video-first, teaching platform that helps teachers to digitise their classrooms. It has more than 700,000 teachers on its platform and is being used in over 1,500 cities and towns in the country. Other than English, it is also available in 10 Indian languages.  

The company competes with peers like Teacherr, ODA Class, Classplus, eduZilla, and SkoolApp.    

In July, Teachmint raised $20 million (Rs 149.4 crore) in a pre-Series B funding round led by global ed-tech-focused venture capital firm Learn Capital. In May, Teachmint raised $16.5 million in a Series A funding round led by Learn Capital to make strategic acquisitions and invest in its research and development.  

Firms typically offer ESOPs to attract and retain talent. In some cases, it is estimated that ESOPs make up as much as 60-70% of the compensation packages of top-level executives. This year has witnessed many companies allowing their staff to employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) liquidity events. Last month, Fashnear Technologies, which operates social commerce platform Meesho, announced a $5.5 million (~Rs 40 crore) ESOP programme to buy back the vested stocks from eligible employees, both current and former. 

 In August, Bengaluru-based health and fitness platform HealthifyMe announced Rs 90 crore ($12 million) liquidity to almost 100 current and former team members. Many other tech-focused companies like Locus, Moglix, Flipkart, upGrad, Whatfi, and Unacademy have also set up liquidity events this year.