Jack Dorsey, the CEO and founder of Square, played Santa in the run down to Christmas by voluntarily gifting 10 percent of his shares back to the company.
Dorsey, the co-founder and co-creater of Twitter, founded Square, a mobile payments company, in 2009. He owns around 30 percent stake in Square and is now giving back about 3 percent of the company's total equity. The shares gifted by Dorsey are expected to be worth between $97.5 million and $150 million based on estimates of the company's current valuation.
With the growth in mobile payments, Square is also growing at a very fast pace. The company now has over 700 employees and has also shifted its headquarters to one of San Francisco's most busiest areas, Market Street. Dorsey's gift to the company is quite rare in the industry.
"One of the principles we hold fundamental here is that an idea that can change the course of the company can come from anywhere in the company," said Dorsey, in an interview with Fortune. "I hope we are building an organization that is not dependent on one person or a group of people who were here in the early days."
The gift from Dorsey increases the company's pool of shares, which may benefit employees. Dorsey's move may also benefit new hires who can receive larger stock grants from the company. With the increased number of shares within the company, existing employees may be eligible for additional equity grants.
The company processes payments worth billions of dollars every year and has also launched a few new products in 2013. Square is expected to grow even more as more people use mobile payments.
Fortune said Dorsey confirmed his plans of gifting back shares to Square at a recent company holiday party. Dorsey also said that idea of gifting back shares to Square was his own decision.
Square is expected to go public in 2014.
Read more: Payment start-up Square plans IPO in 2014
