CRED says that all its employees get stock options, expands pool to $500 million

• Kunal Shah-led CRED has increased its ESOP pool by $143 million.
• This means that the employees at CRED will collectively hold up to 12.5% of this $4.01 billion business.
• Every team member at CRED, regardless of their tenure or job profile, gets a stake in the company.

Kunal Shah-led CRED has increased its employee stock option (ESOPs) pool by $143 million taking the total tally to half a billion dollars.

This means that the employees at CRED will collectively hold up to 12.5% of this $4.01 billion business, the fintech startup told Business Insider. The company also highlighted that every team member at CRED, regardless of their tenure or job profile, gets stock in the company.

Currently, CRED has a team size of 600 employees.

The company did not reveal the exercise price, the price at which employees can buy these stock options for. However, it is usually at a discount compared to the price at which investors invest.

“This is aligned with the culture of ownership and wealth creation that we drive as an organisation. Our growth is due to the commitment of our team and we will continue to support them to leverage ESOPs for their own wealth creation journeys,” the three-year-old company said.

The company also runs an Accelerated Wealth Programme, where team members can choose up to 50% of their annual cash compensation in the form of special grant ESOPs. “Our ratio of ESOP pool per employee is amongst the highest in the industry,” the company claims.

According to a report by Longhouse Consulting, Flipkart has created the largest ESOPs pool of $2.26 billion (₹17,000 crore). It is followed by Zomato with $750 million, Paytm with $610 million and Nykaa with a $570 million pool.

Founded in 2018, CRED started off as a credit card bill payments app. Over the years, it has entered e-commerce, lending, payments and now investment segments. The company currently claims to have over 9.5 million users.

About 25-30% of all credit card bill payments in India are processed by CRED, founder and chief executive officer Shah had previously mentioned.

CRED has raised over $700 million to date and is backed by marquee investors like Tiger Global, DST Global, Sofina, Dragoneer Investment Corp and Steadfast Capital management to name a few.

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