Leverage Edu's Third ESOP Buyback Puts Equity in 23% of Staff

Leverage Edu has launched its third ESOP buyback and granted stock options to 100 additional employees, bringing the share of its workforce holding equity in the company to 23%. Founder and CEO Akshay Chaturvedi announced the move in a LinkedIn post, confirming the buyback is currently underway.

The buyback programme lets employees convert part of their vested options into cash. That mechanics matter for practitioners: this isn't a paper grant, it's liquidity event number three, and employees who joined early enough to vest can now monetise a slice of their stake.

How the buyback timeline stacks up

Leverage Edu has now run three buybacks in roughly four years:

• First buyback: June 2022
• Second buyback: June 2024
• Third buyback: announced now, in progress

That cadence — roughly one liquidity window every 18 to 24 months — puts the company in a small club of Indian startups that treat ESOP buybacks as a recurring retention tool rather than a one-off gesture ahead of a funding round or exit.

What does this change for employees?

For the 100 newly granted option holders, it's a first stake in a business that has just crossed into profitability. For existing holders, the third window offers another chance to sell vested options for cash without waiting for an IPO or acquisition. The company did not disclose the size of the buyback pool or the total value of options being repurchased.

The financial backdrop: revenue doubled, EBITDA flipped

The buyback lands on the back of a strong fiscal year. Leverage Edu's operating revenue more than doubled to Rs 364.4 crore in FY26, up from Rs 173.3 crore in FY25 — a jump of about Rs 191 crore, or 110%, in a single year.

More telling for equity holders: the company's EBITDA turned positive at Rs 2 crore during the fiscal year. For employees weighing whether their options are worth anything, a business that has crossed from losses into positive EBITDA — even at a slim Rs 2 crore — changes the math considerably. Growing revenue 110% while flipping profitable is the combination investors and option-holders want to see.

A multi-brand play, not just a study-abroad platform

Leverage Edu started as a study-abroad platform, helping students with university admissions, education financing and accommodation. The company has since broadened into what it calls talent mobility, operating through several brands:

• Fly Finance — education financing
• Fly Homes — accommodation
• Leverage Careers — workforce mobility and job placement
• Leverage Upskilling — industry-integrated online programmes and certifications

The diversification matters for the ESOP story. A wider product footprint means more revenue lines feeding the P&L, which supports the recurring buyback cadence the company has established. It also spreads risk across the student journey, from admission to financing to housing to employment.

Why recurring buybacks are becoming the benchmark

Chaturvedi's decision to run a third buyback, announced publicly on LinkedIn rather than buried in an internal memo, signals intent to competitors and job candidates alike. Startups that buy back options regularly can recruit against larger, listed companies by offering a credible path to liquidity — something most Indian startups still can't promise.

With 23% of staff now holding equity, Leverage Edu has moved well beyond the founder-and-early-hires stage of ownership distribution. If the FY26 growth rate holds and EBITDA keeps compounding, the next liquidity window — on the company's recent rhythm, sometime in late 2027 or 2028 — could be the largest yet.