Kovai.co is a Business-to-Business multi-product enterprise Software as a Service company. It is based in Coimbatore, India and London, UK, and its products are used by 2,500+ customers worldwide.

To recognize the contribution of its long-term employees, the company announced a distribution of Rs. 14.5 crore ($1.62 million) as bonuses to around 140 of its long term employees.

Kovai.Co calls this as its ‘Together We Grow’ bonus and is giving it to all of its employees who joined the company on or before 31st December 2022. These employees will receive 50% of their gross annual salary as a bonus upon completing three years of service. The first batch of beneficiaries, around 80, received their bonuses as part of their salary payouts on January 31.

“I have always believed that employees who contribute to the company’s success and profits must be rewarded. It has also been my dream to come up with ways to share and distribute wealth,” said CEO and founder Saravana Kumar.

Saravana Kumar shared that when they were considering ways to reward employees or give them a share of the profits, they initially explored alternatives.

“We considered employee stock ownership plans or shares. But that is ‘paper money’ that is not realized unless the company raises external capital or decides to list its shares”, he added.

The company chose to provide the reward in cash, allowing employees to use it as they see fit. “People can use it to close a loan, put a down payment on a house, or invest in anything they want or really need,” he said.

The bootstrapped company crossed $16 million ARR in 2023. The 260+ people-strong company has offices in London, UK, Chennai, and Coimbatore. It was also recently in the spotlight after acquiring the Bangalore-based company Floik.