Quick commerce unicorn Zepto has significantly increased its employee stock option pool by $170 million, taking the total value to more than $500 million, according to recent filings. This expansion follows the company’s $450 million Series H funding round, which values Zepto at $7 billion, up from $5 billion last year.
The company has added 39.4 lakh options to its existing employee stock ownership plan, bringing the total number of options to approximately 1.23 crore. With this increase, the aggregate ESOP value now stands at around $527 million, making it one of the largest in the Indian consumer internet sector.
Alongside the ESOP expansion, Zepto has approved an interest-free loan of Rs 700 crore to its employee welfare trust. This loan is designed to help employees exercise their vested options without facing an upfront financial burden, reflecting the company’s focus on employee wealth creation and retention.
The timing of this expansion aligns with Zepto’s strategy to strengthen its leadership and engineering teams across India. As competition in the quick commerce space grows, the company aims to attract and retain senior talent through one of the largest employee ownership programmes in the country.
Founded in 2021 by Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra, Zepto has rapidly expanded its ten-minute delivery network across major cities. The recent funding provides the company with resources to widen store reach, enhance operational efficiency, and invest in workforce growth.
By enlarging its ESOP pool and providing liquidity support through the trust, Zepto gains greater flexibility to reward employees and offer partial cash exits. This move also follows a broader trend among late-stage Indian startups in logistics, fintech, and food delivery sectors, which are increasingly using stock options as a retention tool and pre-IPO incentive.
With this development, Zepto joins other leading Indian startups like Zomato and Swiggy in offering some of the most substantial employee stock ownership programmes in the consumer internet industry.
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