Shadowfax Rolls out $5 Million ESOP Buyback Plan; Elevates Praharsh Chandra and Gaurav Jaithliya to Co-founders

Bengaluru. Shadowfax Technologies, the leading integrated 3PL services provider, today announced an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) buyback program for its employees. The total value of the ESOP buyback program is estimated at $5 million and aimed at rewarding its employees as the business recovers to pre-Covid levels.

This is the first buyback offering by the company where eligible employees can sell up to 35% of their assigned/vested ESOP shares. Shadowfax employees who have been granted ESOPs and completed more than four years with the company will be eligible to participate in the buyback program.

In addition to this initiative, Shadowfax has also announced the appointment of Praharsh Chandra and Gaurav Jaithliya as co-founders, effective December 2020. This move is in the direction to strengthen the leadership team and scale up Shadowfax’s process and quality initiatives by supporting the current and prospective business units responsively and reliably.

Praharsh and Gaurav have been an integral part of the leadership team at Shadowfax since inception and are currently Chief of Operations and Chief of Strategy and Investment, respectively.

Praharsh, an ex-ATK Consultant and a seasoned e-commerce professional, has helped Shadowfax successfully navigate the highly competitive hyperlocal and logistics landscape. His expertise and insights have been vital to Shadowfax’s growth and scale.

He brings trust, ethics and discipline to the Shadowfax team; while Gaurav leads investment management, he also served Shadowfax as the Chief Financial Officer in the first three years of its inception and effectively maneuvered Shadowfax through a very difficult phase when the market crashed in 2015-16.

His deep understanding of finance and the ability to provide strategic direction, has been pivotal in Shadowfax’s fiscal performance. Their elevation to the founding team is a testimony to their astute leadership and the key role they have played in the growth of the organisation.

Speaking on the developments, Abhishek Bansal, Co-founder and CEO, Shadowfax said, “2020 has been a challenging year. But Shadowfax has grown 2X compared to pre-COVID levels, we witnessed teams across functions at Shadowfax step up and make an exceptional contribution during this time. We have always believed that our team is one of our strongest assets.

Our employees continue to play a key role in the growth journey. The ESOP buyback is our way of reciprocating their efforts and we envisage that it will help unlock value and create wealth for our people. It is because of our team and their strong resolve in the company’s vision, we have excelled in an intensely competitive environment and gained substantial impetus in the logistics industry in a short span of time.”

“I have known Praharsh and Gaurav for over a decade now and their vision and commitment towards driving the organisation forward has been exemplary. Both of them are key members of the leadership group and have been instrumental in helping us scale new heights.

Their elevation to co-founders is a very organic next step for our success and in recognition of their invaluable contribution, as we look ahead to set new benchmarks. Gaurav and Praharsh will continue to add strategic might to our leadership team, as we take on new challenges in 2021 and beyond.” he further added.

Aditya Systla, Principal, Eight Roads Ventures India, commented: “Shadowfax has in a short span of time successfully established itself as a leading 3PL logistics platform in the country. We first invested into Shadowfax in 2015 and have seen the company leverage technology to offer best in class SLAs, drive industry leading unit economics, scale new categories and build long-term client relationships.

The founding team has been instrumental in helping build market leadership over the years and this week’s milestone is a key step towards their next phase of growth. We look forward to working alongside Abhishek, Vaibhav, Praharsh, Gaurav and the team as they build a category leading logistics company.”