Cars marketplace CarDekho to buy back ESOPs worth $3.5 mn

CarDekho, the new and used cars marketplace owned by Jaipur-based Girnar Software, will buy back shares worth $3.5 million under the company’s employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) and secondary sale plan.

Eligible employees can cash out 50% of their vested options, CarDekho said in a statement. 

This is the second instance in this financial year that such a scheme has been floated by the company.  The first ESOP cash out was announced in April last year, in which CarDekho redeemed ESOPs worth $2 million.

The current ESOP scheme is valid for both existing employees who have been in the company for at least two years and for former employees who have served for at least four years and held vested options as of January 31 this year, the statement added.

“Our success to date is a testimony of the great team we have built and this scheme is merely a way of thanking the employees for their significant contributions and dedication,” Amit Jain, co-founder and CEO of CarDekho, said.

The company, founded in 2008 by Amit Jain and Anurag Jain, raised $70 million in a growth equity funding round led by Chinese insurer Ping An’s Global Voyager Fund in December last year. 

The company has raised more than $250 million so far from marquee investors including Sequoia India, Hillhouse Capital, Ping An, Sunley House, CapitalG (formerly known as Google Capital), HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, Times Internet, Trifecta, Ratan Tata Times Internet,  Kreatif Media Karya and Dentsu.

Read: CarDekho bucks auto sector slowdown to grow H1 revenues 92%

The CarDekho Group has footprints in India, Indonesia and the Philippines, and currently operates Indian auto portals like CarDekho.com, Gaadi.com, ZigWheels.com, BikeDekho.com, InsuranceDekho.com and PowerDrift.com.