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Covid crisis drives increase in employee equity initiatives, says Capdesk

According to newly released research by equity management platform Capdesk, 77 per cent of startup founders are saying that the Covid crisis has made them more likely to offer employee equity in their company.

Capdesk is headquartered in London and works with European scale-ups including Secret Escapes, Curve, GoHenry, Privitar, Nutmeg and Gousto.

The study found that among employees, founders and CEOs at private equity-backed UK startups and scale-ups, a majority of employees (80 per cent) and business owners (78 per cent) believe companies should be required by law to offer equity share schemes to their workforce.

“After an extremely challenging year, it is encouraging to see something positive emerge: a fundamental shift towards distributing business wealth to more of those responsible for creating it,” said Christian Gabriel (pictured), CEO and co-founder of Capdesk.  

“Leaders are not only recognising the power of unlocking equity to drive their business and get through an economic crisis, but also the positive impact these actions can have on wider society,” he added.

The research, which was conducted by Censuswide on behalf of Capdesk, consisted of opinion surveys completed by 200 founders, CEOs and business owners as well as 1,000 employees at private equity-backed startups and scale-ups across the UK in early December 2020.

Listen to this interview with Christian Gabriel, co-founder and CEO of Capdesk and Private Equity Wire’s editor Karin Wasteson to find out more about why the pandemic has made it more likely CEOs will offer employee ownership, how it could improve business performance and in what way it might further the post-pandemic recovery.
 

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