A Tech Startup Just Gave All Employees A $10K 'Thank You' Bonus After A Huge Growth Year

Kami was just named the fastest-growing company in New Zealand and it's easy to see why.

The company surprised every one of its 53 employees with a $10,000 bonus this week as a "thank you," after topping Deloitte's annual Fast 50 list with an incredible year of growth.

"We wanted to recognize their hard work and surprise them with something big," CEO and co-founder Hengjie Wang told New Zealand's NewstalkZB. "They've done an amazing job."

Kami makes a digital classroom app that lets teachers and students collaborate on the same document. The company was founded by university students in 2013 and it really took off during the pandemic, especially after Wang decided to give it away for free to teachers around the world.

That move initially cratered the company's sales, but many teachers later started paying for the app's other features and now it's a huge hit in North America, according to Wang.

"Fast forward 18 months, with that sort of massive shift in education, we saw maybe about five years' worth of growth in the market in one year," he told The Guardian.

The company just passed the 30 million user mark and saw its revenue grow by 1,177%, according to Deloitte.

"Our team had been working incredibly long hours, made a lot of sacrifices," Wang said. "We wanted a way to say thank you."

Wang is the second CEO to give his employees a five-figure bonus in recent days.

Spanx CEO Sara Blakely gave all employees US$10,000 and two first-class plane tickets last month, after the company was valued at $1.2 billion.

Not a bad way to end the year!