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BrowserStack’s $125 million share buyback to create cash liquidity for 500 employees, early investors
Software testing platform BrowserStack will buy back shares worth $125 million from its employees and early investors, with nearly half the proceeds set to be distributed among about 500 staffers, with the balance providing liquidity to early investors led by Accel.
The programme, which will be rolled out over the coming weeks, will see employees sell their stock options (Esops) back to the company.
With this transaction, Mumbai-based BrowserStack will have cumulatively conducted $275 million worth of buybacks across three programmes. “The company's healthy profit generation has enabled it to fund this buyback entirely through internal accruals, consistently creating wealth for stakeholders who have been integral to its growth,” cofounder and chief executive Ritesh Arora told ET.
He did not disclose the valuation at which the buyback will be conducted.
ETtech
According to Tracxn, founders Arora and Nakul Aggarwal own 78% stake in BrowserStack, while Accel owns nearly 10%. Bond Capital and private equity firm Insight Partners hold 1.3% and 0.6% stakes, respectively. Around 10% is allocated to the company's Esop pool.Accel, Bond Capital and Insight Partners did not respond to ET's queries until press time Sunday.
“As we scale AI-driven innovation, we want our team to feel the same ownership and pride that Nakul and I do every single day,” Arora said.
While large Esop pools can often remain ‘wealth on paper', consumer internet and SaaS firms have periodically offered employees opportunities to liquidate their holdings.
Whatfix, Flipkart, Meesho, Swiggy, Razorpay, Darwinbox, Urban Company, Classplus, Adda247 and Even Healthcare are among new-age companies that concluded liquidity events for employees in the last 2-3 years.
Over the past decade, ecommerce marketplace Flipkart has emerged among the biggest wealth creators, having conducted liquidity events aggregating to around $1.5 billion across various tranches since Walmart acquired it in 2018.
While Esop buybacks are often facilitated as secondary deals by incoming investors, BrowserStack has funded the purchase of stock from its profits.
The enterprise startup, founded in 2011, remained bootstrapped until 2018. It raised its first external funding in a $50-million round led by Accel and multiple angel investors at a $500-million valuation.
In mid-2021, it raised $200 million in a round led by storied Silicon Valley investor Mary Meeker's Bond Capital, at a $4-billion valuation, briefly making it the highest-valued Indian SaaS startup.
That distinction was overtaken a few months later when Nexus Venture Partners-backed Postman closed a funding round at a $5.6-billion valuation.
The buyback coincides with BrowserStack's expansion from a provider of software testing infrastructure to an end-to-end testing platform. The company has increased its product portfolio from five offerings to 21 over the past few years.
Arora said BrowserStack is actively scouting for acquisitions in the developer tools space.
“The company is leveraging its profits not only to reward stakeholders but to fuel aggressive growth,” he said. “BrowserStack is actively scouting to acquire developer tool startups, using its strong cash flows to consolidate the market following recent acquisitions like Requestly and Bird Eats Bug.”
Arora said the company is expected to cross $300 million in revenue in calendar 2026, marking double-digit growth over the previous year.
BrowserStack is domiciled in Ireland and does not publicly file consolidated financials. Its Indian entity reported standalone revenue of Rs 771 crore in fiscal 2025, a 13% year-on-year increase. The bulk of its revenues, though, are accounted for in the US and Ireland.
Source: EconomicTimes
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