Superbikes to T20 World Cup tickets: Startups go all in to attract talent

Fintech firm BharatPe on Monday offered several perks, including superbikes, to new tech team hires.

As a flood of money chases the next big winners in India’s startup ecosystem, early-stage companies are finding it tough to retain and hire employees as unicorns, flush with cash, are poaching talent with eye-popping salaries.

The competition for talent is pushing early-stage startups to raise funds prematurely to compete with their well-funded peers. (HT File)

Software engineers, back-end and front-end developers are joining freshly minted Indian unicorns at almost double their existing salaries, according to two early-stage startup founders.

Fintech firm BharatPe on Monday offered several perks, including superbikes, to new tech team hires. The company is offering the new joinees an option to choose between a BMW G310R, Jawa Perak, KTM Duke 390, KTM RC 390 and Royal Enfield Himalayan. This is in addition to the joining salaries that BharatPe will give the new tech hires.

If superbikes are not to one’s liking, BharatPe has an assortment of gadgets to choose from, including—Apple iPad Pro (with Pencil), Bose Headphone, Harman Kardon Speaker, Samsung Galaxy Watch, among others.

The company will also fly the hires to Dubai for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup that is scheduled to be held between October 17 and November 14.

“As we build the next generation of banking in India, we want to invite and excite the best tech talent to work with us on building market-leading products at scale. We will, therefore, be taking the lead in tech talent compensation in India because that’s the only real investment our business needs, given the capital efficiency of our model,” said Ashneer Grover, co-founder and CEO, BharatPe.

The competition for talent is pushing early-stage startups to raise funds prematurely to compete with their well-funded peers. Indian startups raised a record $43 billion in investments during the first half of 2021, shows a recent report by market research firm Grant Thornton.

“As investment activity reaches new heights in the Indian startup ecosystem, it will get difficult for early-stage startups to attract quality talent and make competitive bids, for the short term, when compared to late-stage unicorns,” said Karan Sharma, executive director and co-head, digital and technology investment banking, Avendus Capital.