Female unicorn founders earn 8X less than male counterparts: Report

Unicorn startups displayed a vast gender pay gap in their founder salaries with on average female founders taking home Rs 1.1 crore against Rs 8.5 crore given to their male counterparts, according to a report by PrivateCircle Research. 

In the fiscal year 2023, male founders earned a median salary of Rs 1.8 crore, whereas female founders earned Rs 1 crore. The absence of women directors at unicorn companies is particularly concerning in this backdrop. A March 2024 analysis by PrivateCircle revealed that 57 Indian unicorns had no women on their boards.

Overall, the median salary of a unicorn founder has been on the rise, with founders taking home Rs 1.5 crore in FY23 from Rs 1.2 crore in FY22. The number was much lower at around Rs 90 lakh in FY20 and FY21. 

There have been notable outliers with FirstCry’s Supam Maheshwari who took home a whopping Rs 200 crore in FY23 while Slice’s Ranjan Bajaj got just Rs 12 during the same period. 

It is important to note that Maheshwari’s salary was slashed by 49% during the first three-quarters of FY24, according to the company’s draft red herring prospectus. His total remuneration was Rs 77.5 crore in the first three-quarters of FY24. He also single-handedly managed to pull up Pune’s average for unicorn founders to Rs 3.7 crores highest across India. 

Across sectors, media and entertainment unicorn founders earned the highest salary in FY23 with a median of Rs 3.5 crore. Although founders from logistics unicorns fetched Rs 1.9 crore in media salary, the sector came in at the top with an average salary of Rs 12.4 crore. Founders in edtech earned a median salary of Rs 1.6 crore.

The data is limited considering the study excluded founder salaries for foreign registered companies, which is the case for most SaaS unicorns.