D2C Brand Wakefit.Co Offers Rs 15 Crore ESOPs Buyback Options To Its Employees

• The announcement comes after Wakefit.co recently raised Rs 185 crore in funding from Verlinvest and Sequoia Capital India.
• Wakefit is an online D2C store that provides quality sleep and home-solutions products at affordable prices.
• To date, The company has raised over Rs 250 crore in funding.

Bengaluru-based online D2C brand Wakefit.co, on January 22, announced that it is offering an ESOP (employee stock ownership plan) buyback option to its employees' worth Rs 15 crore.

The announcement comes after Wakefit.co recently raised Rs 185 crore in its Series B funding round led by investment management firm Verlinvest and Sequoia India Capital. With that investment, Wakefit valuation reached Rs 1,900 crore (or about $260 million).

In December 2018, Wakefit had raised Rs 65 crore in its Series A funding round led by Sequoia Capital. To date, the company has raised over Rs 250 crore in funding.

According to the company, The new ESOP buyback plan would benefit 15-20 employees, providing meaningful wealth creation opportunities for them. Further, the scheme will allocate 6-7% of the company's shares to the employees' part of the school.

Founded in 2016 by Ankit Garg and Chaitanya Ramalingegowda, Wakefit (Wakefit Innovations Pvt. Ltd.) is an online D2C store that provides quality sleep and home-solutions products to customers at affordable prices. The company currently manufactures its products in-house across three locations and has 22 warehouses across the country. It had recently opened its experience centers in four cities, including Gurugram, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, and Lucknow.

Commenting on the latest development, Chaitanya Ramalingegowda, Co-founder & Director, Wakefit.co, said, "Our workforce has stood together to set us on course to reach Rs 450 crore by FY2021, and we felt it was only fair that we make senior members of our team part of this growth journey. We hope that the ESOPS buyback option will continue to add value to our employees’ lives and keep them motivated as we venture into a new year poised with exciting challenges."

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"We hope that the ESOPs buyback option will continue to add value to our employees' lives and keep them motivated, as we venture into a new year poised with exciting challenges," said Chaitanya Ramalingegowda.

The company said that it will also add another 50-60 employees' into the existing pool, benefiting early employees for their commitment and hard work.

It further said that it aims to increase its workforce from March 2020 by 400% to 3,000 employees by March 2021. It has already started training programmes for machine operators, carpenters, and other customer experience executives.

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