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Supam Maheshwari - CEO & Founder At Firstcry
In the financial year 2023-24, 21 founders of 12 Indian new-age tech companies collectively earned Rs 168.1 crore in annual salary.
However, the average founder salary dropped by 31.6% to Rs 8.26 crore in FY24 from Rs 12 crore in the previous fiscal year.
This decline is said to be caused by a challenging funding environment in the startup ecosystem, beginning in 2022 due to the Russia-Ukraine war.
Lesser funding has allowed startups to implement cost-cutting measures, including reducing advertising and marketing budgets, conducting massive restructuring exercises, and even shutting down operations.
However, Inc42 has reported that Supam Maheshwari, the founder of the recently listed e-commerce marketplace FirstCry, maintained the top position in terms of annual remuneration in FY24.
Although the founder received Rs 103.8 Cr in FY24, nearly 50% lower than Rs 200.7 Cr the previous year.
It's also important to note that this amount includes short-term employment benefits and share-based payments, and excludes gratuity, and other long-term employment benefits.
Recently, FirstCry reported an operating revenue of Rs 6,480 Cr, with a loss of Rs 321.5 Cr in FY24.
Amit Gainda of Avanse Financial Services earned Rs 15.2 Cr. Varun Alagh, CEO of Mamaearth, earned Rs 3.97 Cr, and Ghazal Alagh, co-founder, earned Rs 1.79 Cr.
Social Media Reaction:
Online users had a mixed reaction to the astonishing salary numbers of the FirstCry founder.
One user wrote, "Rajan Bajaj (Founder of Slice - Loss Making) Salary: ₹12 Company's valuation: ₹10,000 Crore Supam Maheshwari (Founder of Firstcry - Loss Making) Salary: ₹200 Crore Company' valuation: ₹28,000 Crore The startup ecosystem is mind bending"
Another user commented, "1. One is employee, other one is a founder, taken all the risk & pain of a startup. 2.TCS CEO’s salary sud be compared with other CEO’s within IT industry. 3.A publicly traded co differs from a privately owned co in its conducts & dealings. 4.Sooner or later FirstCry will learn."