Despite the astronomical salaries that many AI engineers are currently taking home — both in the Valley and closer to European shores — the pay cheques of the founders of Europe’s AI-native startups are not (yet) as high as you might expect.
European VC firm Creandum is today releasing its fourth annual founder compensation report, which reveals that the founders of AI-first companies at seed stage are taking home a median salary of €110k and an average salary of €142k.
Fintech founders at seed creep in just above, with median salaries of €111k at seed and average salaries of €143k. By contrast, salaries for healthtech, deeptech and consumer founders hover around €125k on average.
Read on for three other findings from the report.
CEOs don’t always get paid the most
Not all founders are in CEO roles — and those that take up positions as chief revenue officers or chief commercial officers tend to take home greater salaries.
In 2025, CROs and CCOs earned median salaries of around €130k, while CEOs earned a median salary of €115k.
Bootstrapped founders take home more pay than their pre-seed and seed-stage peers
Bootstrapped founders — those who haven’t raised any institutional investment — have higher median salaries (€92k) than their pre-seed peers (€71k). Their average salary (€110k) is on par with that of seed-stage founders (€110k).
By Series A, founders can expect to earn around €163k on average, which almost doubles by Series D+, when they earn an average of €294k.
Founders in the Nordics second-worst paid
The buzz around Stockholm last year hasn’t translated into a huge pay increase for founders across the Nordics, with median founders salaries in the region sitting at €95k — the second lowest, after CEE founders on €83k.
This year, it was founders in the DACH region who took home the highest median salary: €130k.
