Innoviti Enhances ESOP Pool to US$10 Million to Create Payments Business

Leading provider of intelligent payment solutions, Innoviti, announced has that it has enhanced its ESOP pool to US$ 10 million.  This pool was created as a part of the structuring carried out during the recent fund raise from FMO and Bessemer.

Innoviti’s ESOP scheme, constituted during pre-Series A, is open to all full-time employees of the company and is awarded based on performance and loyalty.  With the recent enhancement, more than 30% of all employees, from senior leaders to system architects, field officers and call center executives are now covered. The objective is to motivate, retain, and attract employees to participate in Innoviti’s vision of transforming digital payments in India at scale. ESOPs provide an opportunity to these employees to create significant wealth, that would not be possible through life-time savings from salaries.

Innoviti’s payment solutions help merchants extract the full power of digital payments by using data and design intelligence, not possible with stand-alone terminals and QR stickers. Innoviti's solutions help merchants get extra sales, extra savings, and extra customers, by using data intelligence to form digital partnerships with banks and brands, enabling them to collaborate and create targeted offers for common customer pools and intelligently and instantly enabling them at the point of sale, driving unmatched marketing efficiencies.

Processing over 6.5B$ of annualized offline merchant payment volume (~5% of India’s offline merchant volume, based on RBI data), Innoviti is transforming digital payments at scale. The company leads monthly terminal throughput at 7000$ per terminal, 2X of India’s average of all other payment providers (RBI data). The use of technology to relentlessly drive reliability and automate processes has further fuelled gross margins, making Innoviti the most capital-efficient company in this space (based on publicly available data). This reflects the speed and scale of impact, number of lives touched and the exponential learning team Innoviti has created along the way.

Innoviti is backed by marquee investors including Bessemer Venture Partners, USA, SBI Venture Capital, Singapore, FMO, Netherlands, and Catamaran, India.  Series C funding was led by FMO and Bessemer.

Quotes:

“Great companies require great teams, and great teams need exceptional talent.  We love to spot and nurture talent that demonstrates outstanding levels of commitment, curiosity, and capability.   While for these people their joy is their high in discovering and solving tough problems, ESOPs are one other way to make their contributions to the company worthwhile for them.

As a start-up our team members fight against several odds to create successes.  It is a difficult journey and its moving to see how some people relentlessly drive this fight, dedicating their time, often way beyond office hours, to leap over hurdles and create phenomenal successes. ESOPs are a small token to make those victories that much sweeter.

Our shares have been quite liquid, and over the years several of our team members have sold their shares to fulfill their dreams.  When we hear stories from our former team members of how they used this wealth to build their home, buy a car or even start their own business, the real purpose of ESOPs comes alive - to enable employees to fulfill their dreams, as they help the company fulfills its.

We are very thankful to our investors who have supported the company time and again in not only expanding the ESOP pool, but also making it accessible and attractive for team members to see meaningful benefits during their journey at Innoviti.” – said Mr. Rajeev Agrawal, CEO, Innoviti.

63% of HR Managers are Hiring Amid COVID-19 Tension, Most Recruiting for Niche Job Roles Solely: TimesJobs Survey

Survey

* In the TimesJobs survey, 16% of respondents said that their top leaders are seeking ways to collaborate with competitors to ensure business growth

* A majority (42%) of HR managers stated that they are using talent assessment platforms to evaluate candidates 

* Around 21% of HR managers claimed that they conducted hiring audits to ensure they were recruiting a diverse set of talent 

With 63% HR managers at India Inc. buoyed about hiring amid the COVID-19 lockdown, this quarantine period may not be as gloomy as it seems. 

In a recent TimesJobs survey, a majority (63%) of HR managers said that their company had been hiring amid the COVID-19 crisis time. Out of these, nearly 65% of respondents stated that they were hiring for niche positions only. 

TimesJobs survey titled ‘The Indian workplace response to COVID-19’ gathered responses from 1,145+ HR managers working across different industries. The important takeaways from this survey include:

1. Diversity topped the hiring agenda: A majority (61%) of HR managers asserted that hiring diverse talent was their top priority even when compared to other factors as Learning & Development.

2. Leadership response was proactive: Around 34% of respondents said their executive management was working proactively to ensure business survival amid the crisis.

3. Employee well-being gained the centre stage: More than 34% of respondents stated that restructured the employee health initiatives in sync with the public health advisory. 

4. The virtual workplace is here to stay: Nearly, 49% of respondents claimed that companies were investing in preparing for virtual work-ready modules, followed by compulsory upskilling activities.

Explaining the findings of the TimesJobs survey, Sanjay Goyal, Business Head, TimesJobs and TechGig said, “The last few months have been a roller-coaster ride. However, on the brighter side, it forced companies to adopt virtual operations more seriously. The survey also pointed that most companies were hiring for the niche roles only, and in my sense, these are the organisations which are virtual-ready, and have restructured/are restructuring their products and processes for customers and employees via technology.”

Other notable insights from this survey were - 

‘Business survival’ crucial for top leadership:

Around 34% of professionals stated that their top management was working aggressively to find new solutions for business survival. Nearly, 24% of respondents said that their top brass was working on building a strong and transparent communication network within the organisation to smoothen the processes. While 16% of respondents asserted that their leaders were seeking ways to collaborate with competitors for business growth. 

Companies investing in assessment tools to evaluate skills: 

TimesJobs survey asked how the hiring managers were assessing candidates in the present lockdown. Around 42% of respondents stated that their company used assessment platforms to evaluate skills on candidates, this hints that companies are becoming more cautious of who they bring on board. 

Corporates held hiring audits to uphold D&I agenda while hiring amid COVID-19:

Around 24% of HR managers said that they wrote neutral job posting to encourage diverse hiring during the COVID-19 lockdown. About 21% of professionals said that their company conducted a hiring audit to ensure the Diversity & Inclusion mandate was fulfilled. While 16% of respondents said that they were writing job posting using a tech-based tool to ensure they were hiring a diverse talent pool. 

TCS may go slow on lateral hiring

The country's largest software company, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), plans to go slow on lateral hiring. According to a report in a leading business daily, faced with the current tough business environment, TCS will be focusing more on trainees.

The company, however, is not planning any freeze on salary hike, though it said that the next year's salary hike would be in single digit per cent range.

TCS has been very controlled about the numbers that we take from here. The focus is on trainees as from cost management perspective this will balance out, said, Ajoy Mukherjee, VP and head, global HR, TCS, in the report.

TCS which reported net additions of 8,692 employees in third quarter, the highest in any of the last five quarters, however, assured that it will honour its commitment on hiring 24,800 people during financial year 2009-10.

Mukherjee added that while I am not saying that we will not hire experienced people, but it will be based more on domain expertise and business need. Besides, for off-campus recruitment, which we did in the fourth quarter to fill on gaps due to attrition, is also clearly ruled out this year. The other focus area also is shift from onsite to offshore.

Further, despite troubles in the US economy, TCS reported a robust 32 percent Y-o-Y growth in business in the region with 320 bps improvement in operating margin at 33.4 per cent in the just ended third quarter. Growth in the European market was lower at 23.4 per cent and came on 180 bps lower margin of 29.2 per cent.

TCS, however, reported lower utilisation rate including trainees during the OND quarter. The company's utilisation rate fell from 74.7 percent in the last quarter to 71. per cent.

Agencies