Clay authorizes employee tender at a $1.5B valuation led by Sequoia

It took seven years of hard work for Kareem Amin, co -founder and executive director of Startup sales automation Clay, to finally take off the company’s product in 2022. Since then, the startup has undergone explosive growth, reached an estimate of more than $ 1 billion, and has expanded the number of employees with several double signs up to more than 200.

Despite the average short term of team in the company, Amin has made a rare decision: Clay allows employees who have at least one year of term of office to sell some of their shares at a relatively high price of shares to one of their existing investors, Sequoia. It’s a victory for everyone. Employee offers a price of a company at $ 1.5 billion, which is more than $ 1.25 billion he secured in his Financing of the series b in January. Sequoia, a clay investor from his series A in 2019, agreed to buy up to $ 20 million in employee shares.

Employed startups often trade a lower salary for a bet of the company, Amin told Techcrunch. “Most startups don’t work, but Clay is practicing, so we wanted to be sure they had the possibility of liquidity.”

According to Amin, both current employees and former employees are eligible for the sale of a particular part of their capital, usually equivalent to approximately a one -year salary.

Alfred Lin, a partner in Sequoia, see Amin’s and co -founder Varuna Ananda to offer participation in financial success throughout the company as another sign of Clay’s uniqueness.

“Clay is a very creative place,” Lin said. Starting technology helps sellers and traders find the right information and automate their strategy on the market with AI. Clay’s tools use thousands of customers, moving from large companies such as Openi, Hubspot and Canva, up to 100 small counseling agencies that help other companies use clay for their market efforts.

The company did not take its loyal customer community for granted. In February, Clay gave the opportunity to direct users to participate in his growth by allowing members of the community around the world Invest in startup According to the same estimate offered to his investors B. Clay, Clay raised about $ 3 million in a community circle so that his customers could divide directly in his growth, Amin said.

Amin looks at the offer and a community circle as a demonstration for Clay’s employees and direct customers that the construction of the company is a collective effort: the way he said, to ensure that “only a few people are accumulated.”

While the competition will help the current and former employees have to bring some of their shares, allowing them to the degree of financial freedom, Amin and Anand are not planning to sell any of their shares on offer.

For Sequoia, a competition is an opportunity to increase its share in Glina, reflecting the company’s trust in the company’s potential.

However, Lin believes that many clay employees will not be too eager to sell a lot of their shares, as they expect their shares in the future to be much more valid. “There will probably be less than $ 20 million in demand, which is sad for Sequoia because we would like to buy more.”

And if employees are not selling some of their shares now, there will probably be another opportunity in the future. Amin said Clay grows so fast that he would like to start offers a year.

Amin hopes that the company’s competition will set up a trend, inspiring other startups to offer employees and liquidity of employees.