If you happen to’ve been studying TC Every day (*expectant look👀*), you’ll know that some staff of the fintech unicorn Moniepoint have been smiling at their account stability these days, due to inventory choice cashouts that shook the ecosystem.
However whereas some had been cashing out, one former worker was battling what he claims was a malicious motion by Moniepoint to disclaim him of his inventory choices.
You have to be seated for this☕: Damilola Ajiboye, a former govt of Nigerian fintech unicorn Moniepoint, has filed a lawsuit towards the corporate, claiming that he was denied $889,600 price of inventory choices.
He says that when he joined in 2016, he was promised inventory choices if he stayed for 5 years. He did, and in 2019, it grew to become official with the provide of 32,000 govt inventory choices managed by Stanbic IBTC Trustees. By 2021, he had even efficiently bought 4,200 of them throughout a liquidity occasion. Clean crusing, proper?
Issues started to crumble after he resigned in December 2021, formally leaving on January 9, 2022. Then, a brand new inventory choice administration system, Carta, was launched—it knowledgeable him he had solely 3 months (till April 9, 2022) to make use of the remainder of his inventory choices. However he solely acquired entry to his Carta account 5 days earlier than the deadline.
He stated, they stated: Ajiboye argues that the five-day deadline was unfair, and that he obtained assurance from a Moniepoint govt that the window for utilizing inventory choices could be prolonged by two years, which influenced his choice to not rush the method. Then again, Moniepoint maintains that Ajiboye was totally conscious of the inventory choice phrases and that 5 days was a enough window to take motion.
Zoom out: This case is pulling again the curtain on how inventory choices are dealt with in startups, and relying on how the court docket guidelines, it simply would possibly pressure corporations to rethink how they deal with their staff when it’s time to share the pie.
All eyes on the court docket. This one’s simply getting began.
