CityMall undertakes first Esop buyback worth $1.3 million.

More than 50 employees across its senior management and core team participated in the buyback programme, it said.

CityMall, which is backed by investors like Accel, Elevation Capital and General Catalyst, raised $75 million in March. Three months later, the company fired about 191 employees to adapt to the changing macroeconomic environment.

“During this time, we have been able to pull off an Esop buyback, and it is sort of a testament to the fact that we are well placed right now. Laying off had nothing to do with the fundraise or the runway; it was a restructuring because we intended to recalibrate our operating model,” cofounder and chief executive Angad Kikla told ET.

Founded in 2019 by Kikla and Naisheel Verdhan, CityMall is a community commerce platform for small cities, towns and villages which sells grocery, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) as well as certain home and kitchen-related products.

It is present in 22 cities and towns across Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi-NCR.

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CityMall’s ‘community group purchase’ model works with micro-entrepreneurs, known as ‘community leaders.’

Kilka said it works with about 15,000 such community leaders, who serve as its marketing and logistics partners in ecommerce-dark towns.

They work on a commission-based model where they use their social network to invite friends and family members to form a shopping team to qualify for discounts, assist them to make purchases across a variety of categories, and manage last-mile order deliveries.

The company said it had grown 30% month on month since inception and that it serves more than a million customers.