Mumbai, March 6, 2025 -XTO10X, a leading platform for scaling growth stadium startups, published its report on insightful remuneration trends for 2024-25. This report provides an in -depth analysis of salary structures, the distribution of actions and incentive models through the Indian startups ecosystem, revealing that startups in the growth stage allapant on average 68% of their income from employee remuneration. Compiled from the leading startup data in sectors such as Fintech, Edtech, Logistics Tech, E-commerce, SaaS, D2C and Retail, the report serves as a precious reference for founders and startup leaders to design competitive and sustainable remuneration frames.
Unlike the CEOs of traditional companies, the founders of Startup are counting strongly on equity for wealth creation. However, frequent fund collection cycles may result in dilution of ownership. To remedy this, numerous startups, in collaboration with their boards of directors, adopt plans for purchase of management shares (MSOPS) to guarantee the fair property of the founders.
In startups at an advanced stadium, the share-based remuneration ratio (SBC) for market capitalization is a key railing in the design of ESOP and MSOP of the founder. This ratio generally varies from 0.5% to 1% (or slightly more), ensuring that founding equity remains proportional to the assessment of the company.
For CXOs, VPs and managers, fixed remuneration generally varies from 80 Lakh to 1.7 crores ₹, with technological leaders in engineering, products and data winning over the median. The salary of leadership increases by 20 to 30% at each stage of startups growth, because companies at an early stage operate with Lean teams, while late growth and stadium companies attract more experienced managers.
The managers of operational / commercial basic functions are paid by the market market. For EG – Marketing leaders in D2C / general public brands and technological leaders in Fintech startups and in depth often gain in the 75th to 90th centile market references.
Equity remains a critical engine of wealth for leadership roles. In $ 1 billion + startups, CXO roles often follow a multiplier -based approach, with a 1.2x median multiplier. For example, a winning leader 4 wages on his mandate could receive 4.8 crores from ₹ in equity. This multiplier varies according to market capitalization, industry, etc.
The remuneration of leadership is increasingly structured to reward the commercial impact. Non -commercial functions such as HR, finance and engineering generally receive around 15%variable salary, while sales, marketing and growth leaders see variable remuneration ranging from 25 to 50%, with the most commonly 50%sales manager. The remuneration models are evolving with the maturity of startups – start -ups at an early stage are favorable to commission incentives, while companies at an advanced stage integrate performance incentive plans with annual operating plans (AOPS) to stimulate the growth of sustained companies.
Mr. Neeraj Aggarwal, co-founder and chief of the farm at XTO10X, said“One of the most important things to do good for start-ups is compensation and payroll expenses, given the increased accent on profitability. There are many hazinés around the right references and therefore a sub-optimal decision-making on this aspect. During our work in more than 500 start-ups, it was a coherent demand from these founders and human resources. The evolutionary report on remuneration trends is an effort to cause clarity and establish the good benchmarks for the most important costly head in the P&L of any start-up. Hopefully this will allow founders and human resources leaders to make more informed decisions on this subject. »»
Mr. Arun Vigneswaran, chief – excellence of people at XTO10X, said“This report offers a complete view of the trends in the remuneration of startups in India, going beyond money to include esop, bonuses and folds. It offers unique headings to help the founders and leadership to determine the creation of wealth and ideal skin in the game for key talents. In addition, it introduces employment architectures that allow a comparative analysis analysis, approaching disparate leveling through the start -up ecosystem. »»
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