Grammarly Inc., one of the most valuable tech startups in the US, continues to pay full salaries and benefits to its employees in Ukraine who joined the country’s military to fight the Russian invasion, the company’s CEO said. Monday.
“The team is primarily focused on their safety,” said CEO Brad Hoover, who declined to specify how many of his employees had joined Ukraine’s defense effort. Before the war, nearly half of Grammarly’s more than 600 staffers were based in Ukraine. Hoover said many of those people have since left the country or moved to areas of Ukraine that are safer from conflict.
Grammarly is a typing assistant and was valued by investors at $13 billion in November. When the fighting started, the branches with operations in Ukraine moved those responsibilities elsewhere within the company. Hoover initially said he spent a significant amount of time moving and outreach, and that a majority of the company’s Ukrainian workforce is now back online. Grammarly also offered paid leave to workers forced to flee their homes because of the fighting.
“This is destroying people’s lives,” Hoover said. “It’s an incredible tragedy.”
Rahul Roy-Chowdhury, Global Head of Product at Grammarly, said the company has not changed its priorities when making plans for the second quarter. But some progress on Grammarly’s goals may be slower than previously expected, he said.
Grammarly raised $200 million from investors last fall, including funds managed by BlackRock Inc. and Baillie Gifford & Co. Hoover said the funding round was not intended as additional funding ahead of an initial public offering, although an IPO or direct listing could be in the company’s future. Grammarly has been profitable “practically since its inception,” he said.
“We run ourselves as a publicly traded company,” Hoover said. “Because we don’t need an IPO, we see that as something we can keep for the future.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.)