Agritech startup WayCool Foods to provide Esops worth up to Rs 400 crore

“This is a scheme that we started with Rs 250 crore worth of equity in Esops already set aside for employees,” Pardhasaradhi said. “But we do have some forward looking visibility as well. Within the next two quarters, we’re going to have an increased pool of at least up to Rs 400 crore from where it is today.”

He went on to add that the scheme is one that is inclusive and not restricted or limited to just the senior management but for employees across all the ranks and levels.

“So the basic context of this esop announcement is that we have been witnessing exponential growth in terms of revenues at WayCool and it is purely because of the efforts that were put in by our employees. So that’s the reason we have launched this scheme, which we believe is one of the largest and most inclusive in this space. It is not restricted only to the senior management but all employees are eligible,” Pardhasaradhi said.

Waycool is eyeing unicorn status by 2025 and the Esop announcement comes soon after the company said it closed
$117 million in their Series D round which saw participation from new and existing investors such as LightRock, LightBox, FMO, Lightsmith, World Bank Group’s- IFC, Redwood Equity Partners and Gawa Capital.

Last month, Waycool also spoke of the completion of its investment in SV Agri (SiddhiVinayak Agri Processing), a fully integrated player in the potato supply chain ecosystem. WayCool initiated the process in July 2021 and completed its investment of $7.5 million in the company.

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“We’ve already started getting good value-added products through that path,” Karthik Jayaraman, Managing Director, WayCool Foods told ET. “We’ve launched potato flakes as a product and the pilot response has been very good. SV Agri has product development as well as manufacturing line development capability for value added products based on potato, corn and chickpeas and other products. So we are executing exactly as per the plan, both in terms of inorganic as well as organic growth.”