Ironclad Launches INR 200 Cr ESOPs-focused Secondaries Fund The INR 200 fund consists of a INR 100 crore base corpus and a INR 100 crore green-shoe option.
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Ironclad Asset Management earlier this week launched a INR 200 crore investment fund, called Ironclad Ventures. The fund has also received the SEBI approval.
Focused on ESOPs, the new fund is said to be designed to address the need for creating structured and repeatable liquidity pathways for employees. The INR 200 fund consists of a INR 100 crore base corpus and a INR 100 crore green-shoe option.
Structured as a Category I Fund, the platform aims to work with the key VC-backed startups to enable staggered ESOP monetization. Investments will be executed through company-led periodic liquidity programs, the fund said in a release.
The fund will pursue a diversified approach to secondaries, building exposure to 30–40 high-quality startups across fintech, consumer, SaaS, AI, and broader digital enablers. Investments will typically range from INR 1–4 crore per company, with the flexibility to participate in follow-on rounds as portfolio companies scale and mature, the fund added.
"Ironclad Ventures is designed to solve a critical gap in the Indian startup ecosystem — the low belief in ESOPs at early stages due to lack of liquidity," said Krishna Killa, Founder & CEO of Ironclad Asset Management.
"Instead of employees treating ESOPs as 'paper money,' we step in to buy a small portion of vested ESOPs every quarter in a structured way. For example, if a team member has INR 25 lakh in ESOPs vesting this year, we can purchase ~5% each quarter, providing ~ INR 5 lakh in cash liquidity over the year. This creates real cash flow for employees while they continue to hold most of their upside for the future. For companies, this creates the ability to lean more on ESOPs instead of constantly upping cash salaries, while still offering employees a credible path to liquidity. The result is stronger hiring, retention, and alignment around equity ownership."
Ironclad Ventures is also onboarding seasoned operators and investors in an advisory capacity — among others, Arpit Maheshwari, former venture capitalist at Stellaris Venture Partners, Apurva Chamaria, Global head of Venture Capital & Startup Partnerships at Google and Shrey Badhani, Co-Founder of Kapiva Ayurveda.
Separately, Zomato and Blinkit-parent Eternal has approved granting ESOPs worth INR 224 crore to eligible employees across different ESOP plans.
"Each stock option is convertible into one fully paidup equity share having face value of ₹1 each. 6,895,545 equity shares of face value of ₹1 each are covered by stock options granted including requisite adjustment pursuant to corporate actions as provided under the ESOP schemes," said the company in a filing.
