Unacademy shrinks ESOP window for ex-employees to just 30 days
Unacademy just changed its stock option policy—ex-employees now have only 30 days (down from 10 years!) to cash in their vested shares after leaving.
The company says this move follows legal advice and aims to ensure parity between former and current employees.
There's a one-time window of 30 days from the effective date for former team members to exercise their options at the exercise price of ₹0.00042 per option.
Why does this matter?
Here's the catch: if you exercise those options now, you'll face immediate taxes based on Unacademy's latest valuation—₹2,650 crore ($230 million), which is way down from its $3.4 billion peak in 2021.
Founder Gaurav Munjal has even hinted that the real value could be under $500 million today.
For anyone who worked at a startup dreaming of a big payout, this shift changes the game—especially with more mergers and acquisitions happening and startup valuations dropping across the board.