This Startup Rewards 140 Employees With Rs 14.5 Crore Bonus For Loyalty

A Coimbatore-based startup has rewarded 140 employees with a bonus of Rs 14.5 crore for their loyalty to the company.

Kovai.co, a SaaS startup, appreciates its employees who have stayed with the company for a long time, offering bonuses based on loyalty rather than performance metrics. The bonus was a part of their initiative "Together We Grow," aiming to stand out in the competitive startup landscape.

Saravanakumar, the founder and CEO of the business-to-business software solutions company, explained that this initiative was designed for employees who joined before or during 2022 and stayed with the company for the next three years.

The 48-year-old entrepreneur said that Kovai.co gave a hefty bonus and salaries to employees as a gesture of gratitude, pride, and achievement.

This initiative, Saravanakumar added, has helped many employees make down payments on apartments, build long-term assets, invest in the stock market, or purchase cars.

Saravana explained that he intentionally decided not to offer employee stock options (ESOPs) or link the incentive to performance. He mentioned that ESOPs are often seen as "paper money" until a company secures external funding or goes public, which is why he avoided them.

Additionally, he opted not to tie the bonus to performance targets and instead focused on rewarding employees who had been with the company for three years.

Saravanakumar, who hails from Coimbatore, relocated to London 25 years ago. After a decade in the IT industry, he saw a market gap and decided to launch Kovai.co in his hometown. Today, it serves a wide range of clients, including the oil company Shell, the aircraft giant Boeing, and the news corporation BBC.

With an estimated total worth of $100 million, Kovai.co generates $15 million in sales annually. After keeping his promise to the employees, Saravanakumar now hopes to achieve his goal of turning the firm into a unicorn and making $100 million.

Not long ago, a Chinese crane company reportedly offered its employees a whopping $11 million, approximately Rs 70 crore, in year-end bonuses. Henan Mining Crane Co. Ltd. put the cash on the table and gave employees 15 minutes to take home as much as they could count.