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Startups dangle hot roles at IITs
Mint Mumbai
|December 05, 2025
In this season’s race for top brains at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), artificial intelligence (AI) startups—both domestic and Silicon Valley-based—are pulling away from traditional recruiters, offering far higher compensation packages, plus bonuses and employee stock ownership plans (Esops).
The caveat: these startups will hire far less people compared to the traditional industries.
A Mint review of more than 300 job descriptions showed that startups such as Javis, Abacus AI, Auxo AI, and others are extending annual packages in the ₹39-60 lakh range—with some US-based positions touching ₹2.6 crore+ for roles spanning voice AI, multimodal engineering, and core machine language (ML) development.
In contrast, established firms—from BlackRock and IndiGo to major FMCG and IT services players—are offering ₹16-35 lakh for AI-linked roles, with IT services firms continuing to hire at scale but at far lower compensation levels than the Al startup cohort.
This story is from the December 05, 2025 edition of Mint Mumbai.
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