Secondary buybacks crossed $2B in Indian startups in 2025 — and the long-promised ESOP wealth is finally landing.

For years, Indian startup ESOPs were a paper promise. 2025 changed that — secondary buybacks across Razorpay, Postman, Zerodha, and the late-stage cohort crossed $2 billion. Senior engineers and early hires who held through 5+ years started seeing real cash in their accounts. The pattern is now structural: any Indian startup at ₹500Cr+ valuation is doing annual or biennial ESOP buybacks as a retention mechanism. For an engineer evaluating a startup offer in 2026, the ESOP component is finally worth taking seriously — but only if the company has a buyback track record or near-IPO timing.