2025 Leadership Salary Trends in London’s Series B Startups

What are the trends for leadership salaries for Series B London-based companies in 2025?

What roles are increasing, decreasing, or disappearing?

Here’s what we’re seeing at the Series B level in London’s later-stage scaleup scene for July 2025.

💹 Increased

→ CTO

⚖️ Staying the Same

→ CEO

→ CFO

→ CRO

→ CPO

📉 Decreased

→ COO

→ VP Marketing

→ VP People

🚫 Disappearing

→ CMO

→ Chief People Officer

Why the drop in Marketing, Ops and People roles?

It’s about AI, but also it’s a shift in business models.

Companies have moved away from blitzscaling.

Leaner teams. More automation. Fewer layers.

📊 Hot sectors?

US Software, B2B Fintech, and Enterprise AI continue to lead the way when it comes to salary levels.

💸 Who pays more?

US software firms still pay more than their European counterparts. No surprise there.

🏠 Remote vs hybrid - does this affect salaries?

Absolutely. Companies are paying a premium for London-based talent due to the high cost of living.

But if you're fully remote in a lower-cost location, expect a lower pay scale.

💥Equity, shares, or bonus potential?

This is where things get interesting.

VC and PE firms are offering big potential payouts - especially around trade sales or major events.

Late-stage VC-backed companies might be the sweet spot for base salary and increased chance of an equity payout.

You’ll likely get a smaller % on paper, but with a more established business and higher chance of success, the upside can still be life-changing.

Conclusion?

1️⃣ If a premium salary is your priority, US firms, Fintech and AI are still leading the way.

If job satisfaction matters more, roles in healthcare or social impact might be the right fit, but they typically don’t offer the same level of compensation.

2️⃣ It’s worth considering where your role is headed.

Some roles are in decline, others are in high demand.

Do your current skills set you up for a premium salary in 2025/26/27 , we are witnessing in real time some jobs just simply disappear.

3️⃣ 1 in and 1 out Leadership hiring strategy.

We are still seeing a healthy level of replacement hires, very much a 1 in and 1 out strategy.

Last thought

1. It is worth highlighting that there are far fewer Series B companies in the UK than before.

This shift is shaping the job market.

With lower volume, supply and demand dynamics are changing. Fewer companies are able to secure Series B. However, the average round size is increasing.

2. Important to note the salaries are based on Medium level pay not the top 1%. And all salaries exclude stock/options/bonus.

CEOs can earn much higher but if it's still the original founder at Series B, the total package will be geared towards stock and a significant pay-out. Although not common in the UK a replacement CEO base salary would be higher than a founder's salary with lower stock and upside potential .

C Suite roles, all the salaries can go to £350K but I still think that it's only paid to a very small group, let's say 1% who stretch the top end salary. Our numbers are very much medium.

VP Marketing / VP People, a few comments the top end is low and should be £200k. Yes again top 1%, but given the reshaping of both those functions the salaries are wide ranging with companies having a huge choice of talent keeping salaries down.

Hiring this year?

Next steps: DM Ellis Seder for a confidential chat about hiring or salary benchmarking.