Simplilearn completes ESOP buyback worth ₹48.74 crore

Edtech start-up Simplilearn has completed its Employee Stock Option Plan (ESOP) buyback worth ₹48.74 crore, at the company valuation of $350 million.

The buyback was undertaken as part of the recent investment by Blackstone earlier this year. This hiring includes the recent addition of Deborah Quazzo to the company’s board of directors and the appointment of Saurabh Arya as the Vice President- Simplilearn Enterprise.

Krishna Kumar, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Simplilearn, told

BusinessLine , about 65 per cent of the eligible employees liquidated their options in the buyback. Overall, the company has a team of 2,000 people and is hiring about 150-200 employees every month across product, technology, and marketing roles, among others. The hiring is being carried out across both India and U.S markets.

The company claims to be deriving over 60 per cent of business from international markets. This hiring includes the recent addition of Deborah Quazzo to the company’s board of directors and the appointment of Saurabh Arya as the Vice President- Simplilearn Enterprise.

“Having launched our ESOPs plan in 2012, this was an ideal time to offer liquidity on the same. For many of our employees, this was their first opportunity in their professional lives to own or liquidate ESOPs. With enterprise and university partnerships in the pipeline, in both India and globally, we foresee a significant boost in Simplilearn’s business,” Kumar added.

Simplilearn’s learning programs span across skills like AI, Data, Full-stack, Cloud, and Digital Marketing and across 30 critical digital economy roles in an enterprise. These programs are co-created with universities like MIT and Caltech and industry partners like IBM, Microsoft Azure, and Facebook.