---
title: "What Is Refresh Grant?"
term: "Refresh Grant"
description: "A refresh grant is additional equity awarded to existing employees — usually options or RSUs — to maintain competitive ownership after dilution, strong performance, or tenure, without requiring a promotion."
date: 2026-07-25T00:00:00.000Z
updated: 2026-07-25T00:00:00.000Z
topics: ["venture-capital"]
source: https://venturecapitaltracker.com/glossary/refresh-grant
---

# What Is Refresh Grant?

> A refresh grant is additional equity awarded to existing employees — usually options or RSUs — to maintain competitive ownership after dilution, strong performance, or tenure, without requiring a promotion.

A **refresh grant** adds new equity to a current employee's package — restoring incentive alignment after dilution, recognizing sustained impact, or matching external offers.

## How it works

People teams review refresh cycles annually or semi-annually against leveling bands and retention risk. Grants vest on standard schedules and need board approval. Refresh differs from [/glossary/promotion-grant](/glossary/promotion-grant)s tied to title changes and from new-hire grants sized for recruiting. High performers in critical roles receive larger refreshes; low performers may get none — linking equity to performance culture.

Option pool forecasts include refresh burn so founders do not surprise investors mid-round with emergency pool expansions.

## Why it matters

- **Founders:** Proactive refresh policy beats reactive counter-offers that distort pay equity.
- **Investors:** Monitor pool runway; insufficient refresh leads to key departures before liquidity.
- **Employees:** Understand refresh is not automatic — ask how cycles work at offer stage.

## Common mistake

Saving refreshes only for flight risks. By then, counter-offers cost more and team trust erodes.

## Related ideas

[/glossary/promotion-grant](/glossary/promotion-grant), [/glossary/equity-incentive-plan](/glossary/equity-incentive-plan), option pool, and retention.

## FAQ

### What is a refresh grant in simple terms?

It is new stock options or RSUs given to someone already on the team so their stake stays meaningful after fundraises or because they hit performance goals — not because they got promoted.

### Why do refresh grants matter?

Without refreshes, early engineers become under-equitized versus new hires. Investors expect a refresh budget in the option pool to keep key talent through an exit.


---
Source: https://venturecapitaltracker.com/glossary/refresh-grant