While billion-dollar valuations of startups often grab headlines, the remunerations of founders who lead the ship mostly go unnoticed. Amid the funding winter and the focus on bottom lines over the last two years, Inc42 launched the founders’ salary tracker for FY23 and FY24 to see how the salaries of founders of startups and new-age tech companies were changing.

Continuing with this, we are launching the ‘FY25 Founder Salaries Tracker’ to keep a hawk eye on the payouts of founders and the financial health of the new-age tech ecosystem. Amid the ongoing new-age tech IPO boom and the continuing profitability push, it is more critical than ever to understand the incentives that drive the key decision-makers.

According to Inc42 analysis, 17 founders of 10 listed new-age tech companies cumulatively earned about INR 41 Cr in fixed salaries in FY25, translating to an average of INR 2.4 Cr. This is well below FY24’s INR 4.93 Cr average, partly due to the smaller cohort size and fiscal restraint.

But, fixed pay only tells only half of the story. Founders also earn from one-time windfalls such as ESOP encashments and performance-linked payouts, which significantly increase take-home salary.

For instance, Delhivery’s Sahil Barua drew a fixed pay of INR 2.8 Cr but had gains of INR 26.5 Cr due to exercise of ESOPs. His........

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