CEO’s salaries reach maximum record in 2025
Entrepreneurs / April 15, 2025
Kruze Consulting, the leading accounting consulting firm and starting financial director that serves more than 800 starters financed by the company, has published its seventh Annual Salary Report of the CEO. This report is based on neonimized payroll data instead of self -informed survey data and the oldest Startup CEO salary report. Compensation data comes from 450 new companies in the Kruze customer base and repeats a range of verticals that include IA, Saas, Fintech and others. In this year’s report, starting CEOs are seeing an increase in average salaries, more than 14% of $ 141,000 In 2024 a $ 161,000 In 2025.
The boom in the Financing of the start of AI has played an important role in impulse of this increase in salaries, particularly in the initial stage. Financing in new early stages companies, regardless of the vertical $ 132,000In 2024 a $ 147,000 In 2025 and the salaries of series A rose from $ 179,000 to $ 203,000 On the same period. Contrary to this growth, the salaries of the B CEO have continued to decrease since it reached a peak in 2022. In 2024, these salaries were $ 227,000 And it has slipped to $ 214,000 In 2025. The reason behind this constant reduction could be the aversion of risk capitalists to invest in posterior stage companies that do not show as much potential as their initial stage counterparts.
A reason behind this dynamic could be due to the fundamental differences between native and non -native startups of AI. Investors seem to be favoring the new companies of the initial stage with AI in their nucleus; Companies that are not alternated with having to review their infrastructure. The new Native AI companies have the benefit of attracting new promising talents and are more agile, giving them an innovative advantage.
The gender salary gap between male and female CEOs is $ 11,000 – The closest has the leg since 2020. According to cruel data, the CEOs saw a general salary increase by 17.8% in the last year from $ 129,000 In 2024 a $ 152,000 In 2025. Comparatively, salaries for male CEOs rose from $ 143,000 to $ 163,000 In the last year. The gender salary gap was in its peak in 2020 ate $ 45,000. By increasing transparency in CEO salaries, the objective is to equip founders and investors with useful data on how to address conversations about executive compensation.
“The increase in the salaries of the CEO of initiation reflects a renewed sense of trust of investors, in part for those interested in innovative companies and dynamic sectors on the early stage, including new AI companies, which continue the attention” Vanessa KruzeCEO or Kruze Consulting. “It is encouraging to see that the gender wage gap continues to reduce, and we hope it will remain in this current trajectory. The signs of the salary report of this year’s CEO are that the financing panorama has generally improved of the least favorable and less favorable and less less lower, less less value that can provide investors who are willing to support their growth.”
