Hurun India founder to share 10% of all exit profits with employees

Anas Rahman Junaid, the founder and managing director of wealth research agency Hurun India, has announced that he will share 10% of profits from his personal startup investments with his long-term employees.

“I am doing this for employees. Making them part of India’s startup revolution. No risks involved. I believe it is important that business owners think beyond their companies when it comes to team’s wealth creation,” Junaid tells Fortune India.

Last month, V. Vaidyanathan, the CEO of IDFC First Bank, had gifted 9 lakh equity shares held by him to five of his employees.

Junaid recently exited online dating platform Aisle. On the face of it, the development could appear a usual move for an angel investor looking for better allocation of their funds, but Junaid explains how its benefits extend well beyond him.

Junaid, who calls himself a part-time angel investor, elaborated about his decision to share the proceeds from his exits with his employees so that they too can enjoy “event-based wealth creation”, something that is not a usual occurrence in a bootstrapped organisation like Hurun.

Taking to social media, Junaid stated that “one of the most inspiring aspects of funded startups is the fact the employees get an opportunity to be direct benefactors of wealth creation during an exit.” However, since Hurun India is a bootstrapped company, its employees sometimes miss such opportunities.

“In order to solve this issue, early this year, I announced during our offsite that 10% of profits from my personal startup investments would be shared with my long term employees. This is in addition to usual bonus, incentives etc,” Junaid said on his social media handles.

“Some of the folks who advised me told me that this is not a good idea as the employee incentives may not be aligned with Hurun's goals. However, I have no such expectations on alignment of incentives etc,” he added. “This is just a very simple approach to make sure that my team, which is responsible for my personal wealth creation, also enjoys "event based wealth creation", which usually happens only in funded startups.”

Junaid shared the proceeds generated as a result of his exit from Aisle. In a note to the companies in his portfolio, the Hurun India CEO quipped that the wealth created by the companies he has invested in not only provides returns to him, but to his team as well.

Back in early 2021, Junaid, along with early-stage investor Konglo Ventures’ founder Vinod Jose, CIO Angel Network, White Unicorn Ventures, and LetsVenture, led the series A funding round. His exit from the eight-year-old digital dating platform comes a little over one year.

The trend of sharing returns from investments has been seen in the banking sector as well. Last month IDFC First Bank CEO V. Vaidyanathan gifted 9 lakh equity shares of the bank held by him to five individuals including his driver, trainer and domestic help. Vaidyanathan's trainer Ramesh Raju received 3 lakh shares worth ₹1.3 crore as a gift to purchase a house. Pranjal Narvekar, a househelp of the lender's CEO, and Algarsamy C Munapar, the driver, got 2 lakh shares each worth about ₹86 lakh.

Santosh Jogale, another househelp of Vaidyanathan, received 1 lakh shares worth ₹43 lakh. Deepak Pathare, a member of Vaidyanathan's office support staff, also received 1 lakh shares. Two lakh equity shares of the lender were disposed of by Rukmani Social Welfare Trust for social activities. In total 11 lakh equity shares were disposed for gifts and social activities.