By Nikhil Cariappa Bangalore based payments company Razorpay has implemented its first ESOP buyback plan for its employees. 140 employees are eligible to participate in this round and will be able to sell up to 33% of their stake in the company. Tiger Global, one of Razorpay’s institutional investors, will be picking up the employee shares, further consolidating its stake in the company, which currently stands at 25-30%. Harshil Mathur, Razorpay’s co-founder and CEO, told MediaNama that the payout to employees would be in the range of $1.5 – 2 million, but declined to go into the specifics of the deal, since it is still an ongoing legal process. According to a company source, around 60% of the eligible employees will cash in on their stocks. Razorpay has 250 employees, which it plans to expand to 350, to focus on sales and product verticals. In January this year, the company raised $20 million dollars in a Series B funding from Tiger Global, Y Combinator, Matrix Partners and Mastercard. Razorpay has raised around $31.6 million dollars in four rounds of funding since its inception. Its valuation is estimated at around $170 – 200 million dollars. Recent partnerships It has partnered with Bharti Airtel to enable users to make online payments through UPI on Airtel’s website and mobile application. It has partnered with the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation to help customers book train and flight tickets through UPI, in addition to other payment modes like net banking, wallets and credit/debit…
