Startup CEO salaries vary by the amount of venture/seed funding that the companies have raised…reports Asian Lite News
The average startup CEO salary increased by 2.7 per cent in 2022 to reach $150,000 per annum globally from last year, while the median increased to $140,000, according to a new report.
According to startup accounting firm Kruze Consulting, in 2022, chief executives at early-stage companies that have raised over $10 million in financing were paid just $199,000.
“Founder CEOs at companies that have raised under $2 million were paid $106,000 on average — a difference of over $90,000,” the report mentioned.
Startup CEO salaries vary by the amount of venture/seed funding that the companies have raised.
The accounting firm looked at data from over 250 seed and VC-backed startups.
It found that average represents a 7.9 per cent increase in pay from 2020, when CEO wages went down owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Companies that raised over $5 million and over $10 million in funding saw their CEO pay go up by 7.5 per cent and 13 per cent, respectively.
“However, startups with more limited funding saw their CEOs make less, by about 7 per cent, than in 2021,” the report mentioned.
The report found three primary drivers for this behaviour.
“Firstly, and most obviously, companies with more funding are better able to pay their CEOs. Secondly, the increased CEO salaries recognises that these CEOs are more effective at fundraising, much like how compensation increases for CEOs in mature companies that generate greater profits,” said Healy Jones, VP of Financial Planning & Analysis for Kruze.
“Finally, startup culture can generate pressure to not take salaries,” Jones added.
Biotech and pharmaceutical companies tend to have the highest CEO compensation, with seed funded companies paying their CEOs nearly $161,000.
Healthcare companies had lower founder/CEO pay.
“We realised that this is because of the rise of D2C healthcare companies, which tend to seem more like SaaS businesses and less like a healthcare company with a CEO who has an advanced degree,” the report mentioned.
During Covid, the average startup CEO salary dipped 2 per cent to $139,000, but bounced back to $146,000 at the beginning of 2021.
Italy slaps $1.3 bn fine on Amazon for abusing market position
Amazon said that with GlowRoad, it will help accelerate entrepreneurship among millions of creators, homemakers, students, and small sellers from across the country…reports Asian Lite News
E-commerce giant Amazon on said that it has acquired homegrown women-focused social commerce startup GlowRoad for an undisclosed sum.
In a statement, the company said the acquisition will help it meet the commitment to digitise 10 million local Indian businesses by 2025.
“Amazon continues to explore new ways to digitise India and delight customers, micro- entrepreneurs and sellers and bringing GlowRoad onboard is a key step in this direction,” a company spokesperson told.
The acquisition comes at a time when the social commerce industry in India is booming, with players like Flipkart’s social commerce platform arm Shopsy and Meesho.
Amazon said that with GlowRoad, it will help accelerate entrepreneurship among millions of creators, homemakers, students, and small sellers from across the country.
“This acquisition will complement GlowRoad’s already loved service with Amazon’s technology, infrastructure, and digital payments capabilities, bringing more efficiency and cost-saving for everyone,” said the company spokesperson.
GlowRoad recently raised nearly $32 million and has investors like Accel, Vertex Ventures and CHD Investments, among others.
The platform has over six million resellers and is present in more than 2,000 cities.
A recent Accenture report said that as the global social commerce market is set to reach $1.2 trillion by 2025, India will be one of the fastest growing markets in the space.
The report said that India’s social commerce market is expected to grow at a 59 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) to reach $17 billion in gross merchandise value by 2025.
It sets the stage for Pixxel’s first commercial phase satellites, to be launched in early 2023…reports Asian Lite News
Spacetech startup Pixxel has successfully launched its first fully-fledged commercial satellite called ‘Shakuntala’ with Elon Musk-run SpaceX’s Falcon-9 rocket.
Being Pixxel’s first fully-fledged satellite, ‘Shakuntala’ hosts one of the highest resolution hyperspectral commercial cameras ever flown to space, bringing it one step closer to building a 24×7 health monitor for the planet, it said in a statement.
Launched on Friday aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-4 mission from Cape Canaveral in the US, this launch puts the company within touching distance of its ambitious mission to assemble one of the world’s most advanced constellations of low-earth-orbit imaging satellites.
“From being one of the very few finalists in the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition in 2017 to now launching our own satellites as part of SpaceX’s fourth dedicated rideshare mission, life has come full-circle for us,” said Awais Ahmed, CEO of Pixxel.
Weighing less than 15 kg, Shakuntala (TD-2) is capable of capturing orbital images in more than 150 bands of colour from the visible and infrared spectrum with a resolution of 10-metres per pixel, far exceeding the specificity of 30-metre per pixel hyperspectral satellites launched by a few select organisations such NASA, ESA, and ISRO.
In just a few weeks from launch, Shakuntala will begin amassing information and uncovering the invisible changes wreaking havoc on our planet like natural gas leakages, deforestation, melting ice caps, pollution, and declining crop health.
The launch came at the heels of Pixxel’s $25 million Series funding from Radical Ventures, Seraphim Space Capital, Relativity Space co-founder Jordan Noone, Lightspeed Partners, Blume Ventures, and Sparta LLC, among others.
It sets the stage for Pixxel’s first commercial phase satellites, to be launched in early 2023.
With six satellites flown in a sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) around a 550-km altitude, Pixxel’s hyperspectral constellation will be able to cover any point on the globe every 48 hours.
India emerged as the third largest startup ecosystem in the world this year, after the US and China, as per Hurun Research Institute…reports Asian Lite News
Domestic startups have raised over $12 billion during the first three months of 2022 as compared to $4 billion during the same period in the previous year, says a report.
According to data tracking platform Fintrackr, 528 startups, including 324 in their early stage and 123 in their growth stage, have announced their funding rounds worth $12.06 billion during the first quarter of this year.
In December, data provided by a leading startups publication said that India had 82 unicorns with a total funding of over $38.4 billion (from 2014 till December 4, 2021).
India emerged as the third largest startup ecosystem in the world this year, after the US and China, as per Hurun Research Institute.
In the third quarter (Q3) last year, Indian startups received record fundings, with investment totalling $10.9 billion across 347 deals, a PwC India report said.
Meanwhile, a recent report said that accelerated funding activity is expected to create over 100 unicorns in India during 2022.
Over the past five years, the number of software-as-a-service (SaaS) firms have doubled in India and SaaS firms in the country are poised to reach $30 billion in revenue by 2025.
TheMinister also said that startups need to experiment, fail and learn from their experiences…reports Asian Lite News
India aspires to become the largest startup ecosystem in the world, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said.
Addressing a session on “Gateway to Growth – Roundtable on Indian Startup Ecosystem” in Abu Dhabi, he said: “Today we are the third largest startup ecosystem, but our aspiration is to be the world’s number one startup destination,” as per an official statement.
“The startup bug has caught India’s imagination. The entire innovation ecosystem that the startup industry represents is giving a new direction, new momentum to India,” he said, as per the Commerce and Industry Ministry statement.
According to Goyal, India offers one of the best ecosystems for startups with a special ‘jugalbandi’, or blend between investors and entrepreneurs to get a balanced outcome and achieve a win-win solution for all.
“I have seen tremendous response from the Dubai Expo where our startups have got the opportunity to raise finances, sign MoUs and get angel investments. All these aspects will help strengthen India’s strong bond of friendship with the UAE.”
The Minister also said that startup need to experiment, fail and learn from their experiences.
“I would urge all of you from the startup world to go extra mile and take the startup story to all the remote places, villages, small towns, northeastern India and other regions,” he added.
On the government’s role in promoting startups, he said that India aims to provide a level playing field and the best business ecosystem.
“We have recently finalised the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with the UAE, which is expected to further enhance bilateral trade, B2B engagement and explore attractive investment opportunities.
“I can assure you that we will take this partnership to newer heights in the areas of sustainability, aerospace, space technology, connectivity, AI, data analytics, 5G, Metaverse, etc. We look forward to leveraging each other’s offerings and expertise,” he said.
In addition, Goyal said that the UAE-India partnership is destined to play an important role in the global economy and in ensuring a better future for billions of people around the world. “This will be a defining partnership for the 21st century.”
“Metaverse is a concept that stands at a cusp where it will be a lead factor in transforming the educational landscape,” said Maheshwari…reports Asian Lite News
Invact Metaversity, founded by former Twitter India head Manish Maheshwari announced it has received $5 million in funding led by Antler India. Maheshwari said the startup will use the funds to build a metaverse of education and expand globally.
Invact Metaversity is a platform built at the intersection of education and Web 3.0.
Founded by Maheshwari and Tanay Pratap, it provides employability-focused training to help the workforce realign with the digital world and secure themselves jobs in high-growth tech companies.
“We will use this investment to bolster the product and technology team for the Metaversity platform, build a virtual-first curriculum and expand into Europe and the US,” said Maheshwari.
Antler India invested in the platform, along with Arkam Ventures (lead investor) from India, Picus Capital (Germany), M. Venture Partners (Singapore), BECO Capital (Dubai) and 2am VC (USA).
Global early-stage VC firm Antler is one of the fastest-growing VC firms in the world and plans to deploy $100 million to $150 million in more than 100 Indian startups over the next three years.
“With focus on making education more accessible and inclusive, we’re excited to see how Invact Metaversity disrupts education in the country”, said Rajiv Srivatsa, Partner and co-founder at Antler India.
Invact Metaversity has also raised capital from more than 70 individual investors, like Balaji Srinivasan (former CTO of Coinbase and GP at Andreessen Horowitz), Caesar Sengupta (former senior Google executive), Nithin Kamath (founder, Zerodha), Kunal Bahl (founder, Snapdeal), Benjamin Ampen (Managing Director Twitter MENA) and others.
“Metaverse is a concept that stands at a cusp where it will be a lead factor in transforming the educational landscape,” said Maheshwari.
“Our vision at Metaversity is not only to democratise education but also to provide high-quality learning at an affordable cost,” added Pratap.
In last year’s Budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced Rs 1,500 crore to further accelerate digital payments’ growth in the country….writes Nishant Arora
To further aid small businesses and empower entrepreneurs, the Union Budget 2022-23 should introduce additional startup-friendly policies and tax relaxations to enable spending on innovation, ease-of-doing business and reducing compliance costs, a slew of homegrown startups said.
New reforms, policy assistance and support mechanisms for establishing a focused approach in solving unmet financial needs through technology will significantly benefit the economy, they stressed.
“We’ve seen a substantial spike in the adoption of digital payments in the last one year. I’m hoping that in the upcoming Budget, the government will think of alternatives to the Zero MDR (merchant discount rate) policy, as that will help promote e-payments and drive significant digital adoption among businesses,” said Harshil Mathur, CEO and Co-founder, Razorpay.
In last year’s Budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced Rs 1,500 crore to further accelerate digital payments’ growth in the country.
Telugu NRIs to Invest In Indian Startups
Mathur said that it would also be desirable for the government to increase contribution to the Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS).
“Hassle-free loan disbursements, automation of tax and compliance, paper-less approvals, and incentives to adopt digital banking practices will also be welcome changes that can support the growth of MSMEs,” he added.
To incentivise startups, the government had last year extended the eligibility for claiming tax holidays for startups by a year to March 31, 2022.
It also extended the capital gains exemption for investment in startups by a year to March 31, 2022, to boost funding.
The country has also seen numerous startups incentivising their employees in the past year with buying back ESOPs.
“Deferring tax payments when exercising the option, plus waiving tax for some ESOP receipts, will also be a laudable change in the new budget,” said Mathur.
According to Ravish Naresh, CEO and Co-founder, Khatabook, they are hoping for a progressive Budget, especially aimed at promoting homegrown startups focused on problem-solving for India.
“New reforms, policy assistance, and support mechanisms for establishing a focused approach in solving unmet financial needs through technology will significantly benefit the economy,” Naresh told IANS.
“In addition, the government’s continued focus on enhancing digital infrastructure in the country will ensure progress towards equality in digital access in FY22-23,” he added.
In the last year’s Budget, the government had said it will facilitate setting up of a world-class fintech hub in Gujarat International Finance Tec (GIFT) city.
The government also proposed a portal to collect relevant information on gig workers to help formulate social security schemes for them.
Vidit Aatrey, Founder and CEO of homegrown social commerce platform Meesho, said that a singular focus on augmenting offline MSMEs with online distribution could be a game-changing economic transformation opportunity.
“We would like to see the government focus on policies that will create a level playing field for offline and online sellers with less than Rs 40 lakh turnover,” Aatrey told IANS.
“Simplifying GST compliance requirements for online sellers will also enable millions of small businesses to leverage the potential of e-commerce and contribute to India’s growing digital economy,” he added.
In addition to this, the startups hope that the government incentivises capital formation in the area of logistics and cold chains through policies and infrastructure development.
Akash Gupta, Co-founder and CEO, Zypp Electric, said that they are optimistic that the government will announce new initiatives to encourage local EV manufacturing, facilitate easy finance and create an innovative EV ecosystem.
“We urge the government to reduce GST on EV purchases and rentals from 5 per cent to 2 per cent. A reduced GST would allow consumers to smoothly shift to EV,” Gupta told IANS.
Indian startups raised a record $24.1 billion in 2021, a two-fold increase over pre-Covid levels, while $6 billion were raised via public markets with 11 startup IPOs, a Nasscom-Zinnov report said last week.
The Indian tech startup base continues to witness steady growth, adding over 2,250 startups in 2021, which is 600 more than 2020.
The latest funding round was joined by existing investors QED and partners of DST Global, among others…reports Asian Lite News
Fintech platform Refyne on Wednesday said it has raised $82 million in its Series B funding led by Tiger Global.
The platform enables employees to withdraw their earned salary in real time before the payment is due, thus reducing debt traps by providing instant access to earned salary.
The Earned Wage Access (EWA) solution provider said the since its inception (December 2020), it has raised a total of $106 million.
Earned Wage Access provides access to a portion of their accrued (but unpaid) salary any time before payday.
EWA is not a loan, therefore does not involve borrowing on the part of the employee and carries no cost to the employer.
“We built Refyne on the notion that everyone should be able to manage their personal finances without the threat of falling into debt traps due to liquidity shortfalls between pay cycles,” said Chitresh Sharma, CEO and Co-Founder, Refyne.
The latest funding round was joined by existing investors QED and partners of DST Global, among others.
The company has partnered with more than 150 organizations, catering to over 700,000 employees. It expects to reach more than 3 million employees in 12 months.
In less than a year, Refyne’s transacting user base has grown 68x and the platform recorded 165x increase in the number of transactions over the period, underscoring the liquidity gap being addressed by EWA.
The Series B funding will propel Refyne’s position as an innovative product in India’s fiercely competitive fintech space that is simplifying personal finance for the masses on a mega scale.
The funds will be used for product development, expansion of the team, and to ramp up various business functions, said the company.
“We believe Refyne will be the preferred partner for large employers that want to offer Earned Wage Access,” said Alex Cook, Partner, Tiger Global.
Refyne’s partner companies include Practo, TeamLease, CARS24, Tenon, Shadowfax, Rebel Foods, Acko, BlackBuck, Arti Group, Cafe Coffee Day, among several others.
Emerging as a global innovation hub, India is now boasting the world’s third-largest start-up ecosystem. DPIIT has recognised more than 60,000 start-ups as on date…reports Asian Lite News
Union Minister of commerce & Industry Piyush Goyal on Monday inaugurated the first Startup India Innovation Week here to bring together the country’s key start-ups, entrepreneurs, investors, incubators, funding entities, banks, policymakers, etc., under one platform to celebrate entrepreneurship and promote innovation.
The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) is organising the first-ever Startup India Innovation Week from January10-16. This virtual week-long innovation celebration aims to commemorate the 75th year of India’s Independence ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ and is designed to showcase the spread and depth of entrepreneurship across India.
Goyal said his ministry is now at a position to recognize at least four start-ups in an hour, and the government has recognised more than 60,000 start-ups so far. Inspiring the young entrepreneurs, innovators, incubators, funding entities, Goyal said, “We all should take failures as stepping stones to success and should focus on three goals — strengthening Make-In-India, innovation and mentoring the young talents.”
Sharing data about the participation of startups from the Tier-2 and Tier-3 towns, Goyal urged the established startups to come forward to mentor them and help them to flourish their innovative ideas.
Emerging as a global innovation hub, India is now boasting the world’s third-largest startup ecosystem. DPIIT has recognised more than 60,000 startups as on date.
Indian startups representing 55 industries, spread across 633 districts with at least one startup from every State and UT of the country have created over six lakh jobs since 2016. 45 per cent of the startups are from Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, and 45 per cent of them are represented by women entrepreneurs. Startups have the potential to accelerate India’s integration into global value chains and create global impact, said the Ministry of commerce & Industry.
However, the Left Front that has wrested many seats from the Congress and UDF in the recent bypoll is hoping that it would wrest Trikkakara from the Congress as well…reports Asian Lite News.
Kerala, which faced back-to-back floods, landslides, Covid, Nipah virus, and Ockhi cyclone since 2018, is having high hopes from 2022 as several projects are lined up and youngsters in large numbers are entering into start-up ventures.
After Congress leader and sitting legislator P.T. Thomas passed away on December 22, 2021, battling cancer at CMC Vellore, Trikkakara assembly seat is lying vacant.
The first major challenge for the political class will be an election on this Congress turf. The election has to be held before June 2022 and many senior Congress leaders are eyeing the seat. Uma, wife of Thomas is also a probable candidate for the election.
P T Thomas
However, the Left Front that has wrested many seats from the Congress and UDF in the recent bypoll is hoping that it would wrest Trikkakara from the Congress as well.
Given the huge mass participation at the funeral of Thomas, Congress has high hopes of retaining the seat while Left Front led by CPI (Marxist) is hoping that in the absence of Thomas, it has a chance to win the seat.
Another major political development in the offing in Kerala is end of the Rajya Sabha term of senior Congress leader and former defence minister A.K. Antony.
Antony’s term will come to an end in April 2022 and given the present strength in the assembly, of the three vacancies, LDF can win two and UDF one seat. While Antony has openly said in several interactions that he will not seek re-election and will settle in Kerala.
Political analyst Roy Mathew, while speaking to IANS said: “You can’t predict what is in the mind of a leader like A.K. Antony who can spring a surprise by seeking a re-election and if he throws his hat in the ring, that means he is the candidate and we can’t rule out that possibility.”
Tourism in Kerala is expected to get a boost under the leadership of Minister for Tourism Mohammed Riyas, who is also the son-in-law of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
Riyas, who is in-charge of PWD, has thrown open the rooms of PWD rest houses to the general public at a nominal rate, thus earning revenue.
Riyas has already issued a new project ‘Caravan Tourism which is expected to grab a special place in the global tourism map like the house boat tourism that had brought laurels to the state.
The state is also planning film tourism by promoting certain spots that had become popular after being depicted in Bollywood movies like Athirapally waterfalls, Bekal fort, Kovalam lighthouse, Munnar, and other destinations. In effect, Kerala is trying to piggy-ride on the popularity of movies to lure domestic tourists in large numbers through the season.
The FIFA World Cup is scheduled to take place in Qatar from November 21 to December 18 and the soccer-crazy population of the state has already booked tickets to see a live performance of legends like Leonel Messy, Napier, and other greats of the football world.
With a huge expatriate population of Malayalees in the Middle East, this World Cup would probably be the first with a predominant Keralite population in the galleries.
The major controversy plaguing the state is the Semi High-speed rail or K-rail that has become a bone of contention between the ruling class and the opposition with the BJP that is ruling the Central government also opposing the project.
With a proposal of more than 1,00,000 crore project, the naysayers are of the opinion that this project would be a white elephant meant only to make fast bucks by the ruling class.
The greens also opposed the project, saying that it would lead to more destruction of wetlands and boring of hills will lead to a further imbalance of the fragile ecosystem of the state. They have advanced apprehensions that this would lead to landslips in the future.
The flagship project of Vizhinjam International Container Transshipment Terminal will not be commissioned in 2022 as the Adani ports have requested the state government for more time and will be commissioned in early 2023 while almost all the remaining work will be completed by 2022. The first international vessel is expected to reach the transhipment project on March 23, 2023.
The first All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) is likely to commence construction at Kinalur in Kozhikode and the Wayanad Government Medical college is also expected to kickstart construction in 2022 in the hill district of Kerala with a predominantly tribal population and lacking health infrastructure.
Information Technology has been a driving force for the highly educated state since the mid-1990s and the state is planning more technoparks in both the government and private sectors to increase production.
Interestingly, pandemic period also witnessed huge growth in the IT sector while all the other sectors had taken a back seat and this exactly is the reason why the government is keen to promote the sector.
The Thiruvananthapuram Technopark, the first park in the country is in an expansion mode and the Phase III of the park is likely to be completed in November 2022 with almost all the space already being filled before the work is completed.
TCS, Tech Mahindra, and IBM are also setting up major infrastructure in the state by the end of 2022.
Thar SUV (Photo: @Mahindra_Thar /Twitter)
Agriculture sector that has been on a backburner in state is looking up with several Farm Producer Cooperatives coming up in all areas of the state with the support of the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), and many of these Farm cooperatives are involved in making value-added products from tapioca, banana and jack fruit and is earning export revenue.
The Balaramapuram handloom which has been a traditional weaving cluster of the state is also looking up with the Hollywood fashion designer Sanjana John making a documentary and promising the weavers that she would display their product at the Oscar award-winning function. Union Minister of State for External affairs V. Muraleedharan, who hails from Kerala, had taken the initiative in this regard.
While Covid and its new variant Omicron are a cause of worry to the people and the authorities, the state is well poised to move ahead with more vaccinations to older people and children alike.
