Slice founder Rajan Bajaj's salary was mere ₹12 in FY23
Rajan Bajaj, the founder of fintech unicorn Slice, drew an annual salary of just ₹12 in FY23, as per a report by PrivateCircle Research. This figure is nothing when compared to FirstCry CEO Supam Maheshwari's remuneration of ₹200.7 crore, during the same period. The report highlighted these two as outliers among unicorn founders' salaries. It also discussed the median and average salary gaps.
Slice's remarkable revenue growth despite low CEO salary
Despite Bajaj's nominal salary, Slice reported a revenue of ₹847 crore from its operations in payments and lending business during FY23. This marked a three-fold increase over the previous fiscal year. The company achieved this growth even after discontinuing its flagship product, a revolving credit line on prepaid card, due to regulatory restrictions in the first quarter of FY23.
FirstCry CEO's salary drops, shares sold prior to IPO
The report also highlighted Maheshwari's monthly salary, which saw a 49% decrease in the first three quarters of FY24, bringing his total remuneration down to ₹77.5 crore. Before filing for an initial public offer (IPO) in December, Maheshwari sold off 6.2 million shares in FirstCry over a span of 10 days, as revealed by PrivateCircle Research.
Gender disparity in unicorn founders' salaries
The study by PrivateCircle Research also revealed a significant gender disparity in the salaries of unicorn founders. The median salary of female unicorn founders was nearly 44% lower than their male counterparts, standing at ₹1 crore compared to ₹1.8 crore in FY23. On average, male founders earned eight times more than their female peers during this period.
Sector-wise breakdown of salaries
The report also provided a sector-wise breakdown of unicorn founders' salaries. The median founder salary for media and entertainment unicorns was the highest at ₹3.5 crore in FY23, followed by logistics unicorns at ₹1.9 crore and edtech firms at ₹1.6 crore. However, when it came to average salaries, logistics unicorns topped the list with an impressive figure of ₹12.4 crore.
