Quarterly report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)

Stock-Based Compensation

v3.21.2
Stock-Based Compensation
6 Months Ended
Jul. 31, 2021
Share-based Payment Arrangement [Abstract]  
Stock-Based Compensation Stock-Based Compensation
Equity Incentive Plans
The Sprinklr, Inc. 2011 Equity Incentive Plan (the “2011 Plan”) provided certain equity grants to the Company’s employees, directors, consultants and service providers. The 2011 Plan was terminated as to future awards in June 2021 upon the adoption of the Sprinklr, Inc. 2021 Equity Incentive Plan (the “2021 Plan”), although it continues to govern the terms of any equity grants that remain outstanding under the 2011 Plan.

The Company’s board of directors adopted the 2021 Plan in May 2021, which was subsequently approved by our stockholders and became effective on June 22, 2021. Initially, the maximum number of share of the Company’s Class A common stock that may be issued under the 2021 Plan is 80,401,680 shares, which includes (1) 25,480,000 new shares of Class A common stock and (2) shares subject to outstanding awards granted under the 2011 Plan that expire or otherwise terminate or that are not issued or are otherwise reacquired by the Company under certain circumstances. The 2021 Plan provides that the number of shares reserved and available for issuance under the 2021 Plan will automatically increase each January 1, beginning on January 1, 2022 and ending on (and including) January 1, 2031, by an amount equal to 5% of the
number of our Class A and Class B common stock outstanding on the immediately preceding December 31 or such lesser number of shares as determined by the Company’s board of directors.

Our 2021 Plan provides for the grant of incentive stock options (ISOs), nonstatutory stock options (NSOs), stock appreciation rights, restricted stock awards, restricted stock unit (RSU) awards, performance awards and other forms of awards to employees, directors and consultants, including employees and consultants of our affiliates, as permitted by law.

Performance Share Units
On January 28, 2021, the Company granted 3,100,000 shares of PSUs that vest over a five year period if certain performance conditions are met. Following an IPO, the PSUs will vest on the date on which the volume weighted-average trading price of the Company's Class A common stock has, for 45 consecutive trading days, equaled or exceeded pre-determined threshold prices ranging between $30 and $100, or upon a change in control of the Company. If the first threshold of $30 is not met, then no shares will vest. Each PSU is equal to and paid in one share of our Class B common stock. The number of shares actually issued will range from zero to 3,100,000 shares in the aggregate.
To determine the fair value of the PSUs, the Company utilized a Monte Carlo simulation, a computational algorithm which allows us to model the impact of one or more, often uncertain, variables on the value of complex securities and evaluate many possible outcomes to forecast the stock price of the Company. As part of the valuation, the Company considered various scenarios related to the pricing, timing and probability of an IPO. The Company applied an annual equity volatility of 40.0%, a risk-free rate of 0.42%, fair value of common stock of $9.07 and an expected term of five years to arrive at a valuation of $3.5 million on the grant date.
The performance-based vesting condition was satisfied on the effective date of the registration statement of the Company filed under the Securities Act for the sale of the Company’s common stock. Such event was not deemed probable until consummated, and therefore, stock-based compensation related to these PSUs remained unrecognized prior to the effectiveness of the IPO. Upon closing of the IPO on June 25, 2021, the performance-based vesting condition was satisfied, and therefore, the Company recognized cumulative stock-based compensation expense of $0.4 million using the accelerated attribution method for the portion of the PSU awards for which the service-based vesting condition has been partially satisfied.
Chief Executive Officer Stock Option Agreement
On March 18, 2019, the Company granted options to purchase 9,274,528 shares of common stock to its Chief Executive Officer. The grant is split into four tranches, each covering 2,318,632 shares of common stock.  Tranche 1 vests over three years.  Tranche 2, 3 and 4 are performance based, with tranche 2 vesting upon an IPO or change of control and tranches 3 and 4 vesting in the event of both i) an IPO or change of control and ii) the Company’s share price equaling or exceeding a certain value at or after the occurrence of an IPO or change of control. For the 6,955,896 options that are subject to the performance conditions that are triggered upon IPO or a change of control, stock-based compensation expense remained unrecognized prior to the effectiveness of the IPO. On June 25, 2021, the performance-based vesting condition was satisfied and 2,318,632 options under tranche 2 vested and the Company recognized cumulative stock-based compensation expense of $5.8 million using the accelerated attribution method for the portion of the PSU awards for which the service-based vesting condition has been fully or partially satisfied. The remaining $0.3 million associated with tranches 3 and 4 will be recognized through the subsequent remaining requisite service period, or March 24, 2022.
To determine the fair value of our stock options that include market conditions (tranche 3 and 4), the Company utilized a Monte Carlo simulation, which allows for the modeling of complex securities and evaluate many possible outcomes to forecast the stock price of the Company post-IPO. As part of the valuation, the Company considered various scenarios related to the pricing, timing and probability of an IPO. The Company applied an annual equity volatility of 44%, a risk-free rate of 2.6%, fair value of the common stock of $4.25 and an expected term of ten years to arrive at a valuation of $1.7 million on the grant date.
Summary of Stock Option Activity
A summary of the Company’s stock option activity for the Plan for all periods presented is as follows:
Number of stock options outstanding Weighted average exercise price Weighted average remaining contractual life Aggregate intrinsic value
(in thousands) (in years) (in thousands)
Balance as of January 31, 2021
46,455  4.37  7.7 $ 218,450 
Granted 10,645  11.43 
Exercised (8,546) 1.95 
Cancelled/forfeited (1,743) 8.46 
Balance as of July 31, 2021
46,811  6.26  8.3 $ 612,148 
Exercisable as of July 31, 2021
14,012  $ 4.02  7.2 $ 214,665 
Vested and expected to vest as of July 31, 2021
36,942  $ 5.69  8.0 $ 504,410 
The aggregate intrinsic value is calculated as the difference between the exercise price of the underlying awards and the Company’s share price of $19.34 as of July 31, 2021 for options that were in-the-money as of that date.
The weighted-average grant date fair value of options granted and the total intrinsic value of options exercised during the periods presented were as follows:
Six Months Ended July 31,
2021 2020
Weighted average grant date fair value of options granted $ 5.58  $ 2.05 
Total intrinsic value of options exercised (in thousands) $ 72,921  $ 6,199 
The total estimated grant date fair value of options vested in the six months ended July 31, 2021 and 2020 was $13.2 million and $7.7 million, respectively.
Determining Fair Value of Stock Options
The fair value of each option grant with service and performance conditions is estimated on the date of grant using the Black-Scholes option valuation model. The following assumptions were used to estimate the fair value of options granted to employees:
Six Months Ended July 31,
2021 2020
Expected term (in years) 6.0 6.0
Risk-free interest rate
0.9% - 1.4%
0.4% - 0.8%
Expected volatility
50.9% - 52.1%
42.3% - 45.3%
Expected dividend rate 0% 0%
Fair value of common stock
$10.96 - $14.02
$4.93
The assumptions were based on the following for each of the periods presented:
Expected term—The expected term represents the period that the Company’s stock-based awards are expected to be outstanding. As all of the Company’s option grants are considered to be “plain vanilla,” the Company determined the expected term using the simplified method. The simplified method calculates the expected term as the average of the time-to-vesting and contractual terms of the stock-based award.
Risk-free interest rate—The risk-free interest rate is based on U.S. Treasury zero coupon issues with remaining terms similar to the expected term on the options.
Expected volatility—Since the Company has no trading history by which to determine the volatility of its own common stock price, the expected volatility being used is derived from the historical stock volatilities of a representative industry peer group of comparable publicly listed companies over a period approximately equal to the expected term of the options.
Expected dividend rate—The Company has never declared or paid any cash dividends and does not plan to pay cash dividends in the foreseeable future, and, therefore, used an expected dividend yield of zero in the valuation model.
Fair value of common stock – Prior to the IPO, the fair value of common stock underlying the stock options had historically been determined by the Board of Directors, with input from the Company’s management. The Board of Directors previously determined the fair value of the common stock at the time of grant of the options by considering a number of objective and subjective factors, including valuations of comparable companies, sales of common stock to unrelated third parties, operating and financial performance, the lack of liquidity of the Company’s capital stock, and general and industry-specific economic outlook. Subsequent to the IPO, the fair value of the underlying common stock is determined by the closing price, on the date of grant, of the Company’s Class A common stock, which is traded publicly on the New York Stock Exchange.
Forfeiture Rate - The Company estimates forfeitures at the time of grant and revises those estimates in subsequent periods if actual forfeitures differ from those estimates. The Company uses historical data to estimate pre-vesting forfeitures and records stock-based compensation expense only for those awards that are expected to vest. All service-based stock-based payment awards are amortized on a straight-line basis over the requisite service periods of the awards, which are generally the vesting periods.
Restricted Stock Units
A summary of the Company’s RSU award activity was as follows:
Number of restricted shares outstanding Weighted Average Grant Date Fair Value
(in thousands)
Balance as of January 31, 2021
450  $ 7.26 
Granted 56  17.60 
Balance as of July 31, 2021
506  $ 8.41 
On January 28, 2021, the Company granted 300,000 RSUs that have vesting conditions, including the completion of an IPO or change in control event, and the achievement of a service condition. The service condition is a time-based condition met over a period of five years, with 20% met after one year, and then equal quarterly installments over the succeeding four years. The performance-based vesting condition is satisfied on the effective date of a registration statement of the Company filed under the Securities Act for the sale of the Company’s common stock. Such event was not deemed probable until consummated, and therefore, stock-based compensation related to these RSUs remained unrecognized prior to the effectiveness of the IPO. Upon completion of our IPO on June 25, 2021, the performance-based vesting condition was satisfied, and therefore, the Company recognized cumulative stock-based compensation expense of $0.6 million using the accelerated attribution method for the portion of the RSU awards for which the service-based vesting condition has been partially satisfied.
Employee Stock Purchase Plan
The Board of Directors adopted the 2021 Employee Stock Purchase Plan (“ESPP”) on May 20, 2021, which was subsequently approved by our stockholders and became effective on June 22, 2021. The ESPP authorizes the initial issuance of up to 5,100,000 shares of the Company’s Class A common stock to certain eligible employees or, as designated by the board of directors, employees of a related company. The ESPP provides that the number of shares of Class A common stock reserved and available for issuance under the ESPP will automatically increase each January 1, beginning on January 1, 2022 and ending on (and including) January 1, 2031, by an amount equal to the lesser of (i) 1% of the outstanding number of shares of common stock on the immediately preceding December 31 and (ii) 15,300,000, or such lesser number of shares as determined by the Company’s board of directors.
Our ESPP will include two components. One component will be designed to allow eligible U.S. employees to purchase our Class A common stock in a manner that may qualify for favorable tax treatment under Section 423 of the Code. The other component will permit the grant of purchase rights that do not qualify for such favorable tax treatment in order to allow deviations necessary to permit participation by eligible employees who are foreign nationals or employed outside of the United States while complying with applicable foreign laws.

The ESPP provides eligible employees with an opportunity to purchase shares of the Company’s Class A common stock through payroll deductions of up to 15% of their eligible compensation. A participant may purchase a maximum of 5,000 shares of common stock during a purchase period. Amounts deducted and accumulated by the participant are used to purchase shares of common stock at the end of each six-month purchase period. The purchase price of the shares shall be 85% of the lower of the fair market value of the Class A common stock on (i) the first trading day of the applicable offering period and (ii) the last trading day of each purchase period in the related offering period. Participants may end their participation at any time during an offering period and will be paid their accrued contributions that have not yet been used to purchase shares of common stock. Participation ends automatically upon termination of employment. The ESPP provides for consecutive offering periods that will typically have a duration of approximately 12 months in length and is comprised of two purchase periods of approximately six months in length. The offering periods are scheduled to start on the first trading day on or after June 15 and December 15 of each year. The first offering period commenced on June 23, 2021 and is scheduled to end on the first trading day on or before June 15, 2022.

ESPP employee payroll contributions accrued at July 31, 2021 totaled $1.5 million and are included within accrued compensation in the condensed consolidated balance sheet. Employee payroll contributions ultimately used to purchase shares will be reclassified to stockholders' equity on the purchase date. The Company recorded stock-based compensation of $0.9 million during the three and six months ended July 31, 2021 in connection with the ESPP.
The fair value of the share purchase rights granted under the ESPP during the six months ended July 31, 2021 was estimated on the date of grant using the Black-Scholes option pricing model with the following assumptions:
Three Months Ended July 31,
2021
Expected term (in years) 0.9
Risk-free interest rate
0.05% - 0.08%
Expected volatility
55.70% - 57.00%
Expected dividend rate 0%
Fair value of common stock $22.37
Deferred Stock Compensation Plan
In May 2020, the Company implemented a program which provides eligible employees the opportunity, through regular payroll deductions, to purchase shares of the Company's common stock worth between 10% to 25% of the employee's salary as elected by the participant, subject to certain caps set forth under the program. Employees may purchase shares of the Company’s common stock at the lower of the fair value of the common stock at the beginning or ending date of the purchase period, which commenced on June 1, 2020 and concluded on June 1, 2021. Receipt of common stock under this program was contingent on continued employment through June 1, 2021.
This share-settled obligation was recognized in June 2021, at which point the employees were granted shares under this program. In determining the fair value of the right to purchase under this program, the Company used the Monte-Carlo simulation and applied an annual equity volatility of 48.2%, a risk-free rate of 0.17%, fair value of the common stock of $4.93 and an expected term of one year to arrive at a valuation of $1.9 million for the put right, resulting in a grant date fair value of $5.86. The Company recognized $3.4 million of stock-based compensation expense in the six months ended July 31, 2021 related to shares issuable pursuant to this program. On June 7, 2021, the Company issued 1,769,945 shares in connection with this program based on the fair value of the common stock at the beginning of the purchase period.
Stock-Based Compensation Expense
Stock-based compensation expense included in operating results was allocated as follows (in thousands):
Three Months Ended July 31, Six Months Ended July 31,
2021 2020 2021 2020
Costs of subscription $ 443  $ 314  $ 822  $ 518 
Costs of professional services 737  315  1,022  454 
Research and development 1,501  607  2,729  1,087 
Sales and marketing 4,766  2,756  8,966  4,105 
General and administrative 9,179  1,853  11,993  3,243 
Stock-based compensation, net of amounts capitalized 16,626  5,845  25,532  9,407 
Capitalized stock-based compensation 233  —  233  — 
Total stock-based compensation $ 16,859  $ 5,845  $ 25,765  $ 9,407 
Three Months Ended July 31, Six Months Ended July 31,
2021 2020 2021 2020
Equity classified awards $ 16,609  $ 5,595  $ 25,265  $ 8,990 
Other awards (1)
250  250  500  417 
$ 16,859  $ 5,845  $ 25,765  $ 9,407 
(1) Nonemployee grant recorded over five years, representing the same period and in the same manner as if the grantor had paid cash for the services instead of paying with or using the share-based payment award.

As of July 31, 2021, total unrecognized compensation cost related to unvested awards not yet recognized under all equity compensation plans, adjusted for estimated forfeitures, was as follows:
July 31, 2021
Unrecognized expense Weighted average expense recognition period
(in thousands) (in years)
Stock options $ 54,312  3.1
Performance share units 3,190  3.6
Restricted stock units 2,961  1.9
ESPP 11,870  0.9