Payday Boom: At $6.93 Mn, Snapdeal Founders’ Pay For FY 2015 Surpasses Infosys, Wipro and TCS CEO’s

Thanks to the stock market, Snapdeal founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal grabbed $6.93 Mn (INR 46.5 Cr) each, in total executive compensation for FY 2015. They are now jointly number seven among paid executives in the country.

As reported by VCCircle, the duo get their share of $6.70 Mn (INR 45 Cr) from stock options. If this is not the case, the remuneration for both will be in line with other CEOs who made the list of highest paid executives for the last financial year.

The list also includes the CEOs of Quikr, Zomato, Ola, MuSigma, Shopclues and Paytm – all with remuneration in the range of $37.2K – $837K. Ola’s Bhavish Aggarwal also got a jump from last year remuneration in 2015 in the similar range, owing to stock options.

“Promoters of large mature firms typically do not opt for stock options even if they take an executive role in their firms. In fact, some take nominal cash salaries. But some startups include such options for founders as part of the compensation mix.”

Overall, those who made it to the list of top paid executives in the country in 2015 included Kalanithi Maran and his wife Kavery Kalanithi (SunTV Network, $8.9 Mn each), Naveen Jindal (Jindal Steel and Power Ltd., $8.1 Mn), and Kumar Mangalam Birla (Aditya Birla Group, $7.3 Mn).

A recent report by LiveMint revealed a 100% rise in CEO salaries over the last years. And this growth has been unaffected by the profits showed by the company.

The current trend also highlights the importance of the role a CEO plays in a company, thereby attracting the highest compensations worldwide. However, this widens the gap with other executives and middle-level employees of the company, creating disparity among counterparts as well as competitive companies in various domains.

According to Kelly India 2015/16 salary guide, apart from CEOs, middle-level managers having domain expertise in categories such as catalogue marketing, SEO, SCM, strategy, operation/ procurement and more are also paid a handsome amount.. The salaries range between $223K – $745K.

While startup founders still have a ways to catch up with BCCL’s Vineet Jain who is top earner with INR 90.9 Cr, there is no denying the fact that the ecosystem is evolving and adapting to suit the needs of these entrepreneurs with healthier and fatter pay packets, regardless of profit and valuation.