Global Compensation Survey 2025 Sign Up for Updates Compensation Calculator

Since its inception in 2017, the VC Platform Compensation Survey has evolved in parallel with the growth and professionalization of the platform function itself. What began as a small peer benchmarking effort among early platform leaders has evolved into the industry’s most comprehensive dataset on how platform roles are defined, valued, and rewarded.

Over eight years, respondent participation has increased more than fourfold, reflecting both the expansion of VC Platform’s global membership and the function’s broader adoption across firm sizes and geographies. Once predominantly a U.S.-based community focused on mid-stage funds, the respondent base now includes global representation across 40+ countries, with a balance spanning new and emerging subfunctions under the platform umbrella.

During the same period, VC Platform’s community has grown from fewer than 200 professionals to thousands of members collectively managing trillions in AUM globally. This growth has fueled richer data inputs and more granular benchmarking across firm stages, AUM tiers, and functional subdomains.

Each year, new data fields have been introduced to capture the evolving dimensions of platform work—from equity participation (added in 2019) and team size (2020) to fund AUM segmentation (2021), carry participation (2022), and now career satisfaction, role scope, and perceived firm support (2025). These additions have allowed the survey to move beyond static pay benchmarks toward a multidimensional view of career structure and sentiment.

Because of this continuity, longitudinal trends have emerged that could only be revealed through sustained participation:

• Rising seniority and compensation growth as the function matures
• Increased alignment between role scope and title
• Expanded carry eligibility at larger funds
• Broader functional diversification beyond traditional talent and community tracks
• Globalization of platform as firms build local and distributed teams

Together, these trends underscore not only the evolution of compensation, but the evolution of platform itself as a leadership discipline within venture.

• Identifying and removing duplicate or incomplete entries
• Excluding investment-focused roles not primarily operating within platform functions
• Converting all compensation data to USD using contemporaneous exchange rates
• Standardizing geographic regions and fund-size bands
• Removing significant statistical outliers within each segment
• Harmonizing unique or free-text titles and functions to consistent categories

Additionally, quality and integrity measures included:

• Anonymization and aggregation of all data to protect respondent privacy
• Enforcing minimum cell-size thresholds (n ≥ 10) for any publicly reported segmentation
• Suppressing or merging data slices where confidentiality could be at risk

Together, these safeguards and processes ensure that every data point published reflects a statistically sound, ethically handled, and contextually normalized view of how platform professionals are compensated across the global venture ecosystem. While self-reported datasets inherently contain some variance, this methodology minimizes noise and maximizes comparability.

Global platform compensation spans a wide range, reflecting the diversity of seniority, fund size, functional scope, and geographic cost of living across respondents. All data is presented in USD. 

Base Salary:
The global base salary distribution shows meaningful dispersion.

• 10th percentile: $75,945
• Median [50th percentile]: $165,000
• 90th percentile: $350,000

Bonus Eligibility & Value:
Bonus participation remains uneven—only approximately 60% of respondents report receiving a bonus. Where bonuses exist, values vary widely by fund size and firm maturity. 

• 10th percentile: $6,936
• Median: $26,993
• 90th percentile: $103,250

Total Cash Compensation (Base + Actual Bonus):
Total cash compensation shows a significant spread across the dataset.

• 10th percentile: $98,569
• Median: $207,500
• 90th percentile: $441,581

Contextual Macro Factors:
Several macro dynamics shape these numbers and the year-over-year movement within the dataset:

• A tighter fundraising environment, especially for emerging managers and smaller funds.
• Cooling but still elevated inflation, moderating from 2022 highs.
• Foreign exchange (FX) fluctuations are particularly impactful because all compensation is normalized to USD.

Talent & Recruiting
These roles sit at the top of the platform pay pyramid, reflecting their direct impact on portfolio quality and firm performance. Talent is also one of the most bonus-leveraged platform functions.

• Base: ~$240,000
• Bonus: ~$55,000
• Total Cash: ~$300,000

Product, Data & AI
Compensation is similarly strong, driven by specialized expertise and increasingly critical data/AI mandates.

• Base: ~$225,000
• Bonus: ~$45,000
• Total Cash: ~$275,000
  

Community & Portfolio Support
This group represents the largest functional cohort and sits at the “center of gravity” for platform compensation.

• Base: ~$150,000
• Bonus: ~$20,000
• Total Cash: ~$190,000
  

Marketing, Brand & Events
Slightly lower base salaries but similar bonus patterns compared to community roles.

• Base: ~$135,000
• Bonus: ~$20,000
• Total Cash: ~$165,000

Global Compensation Patterns by Region
Total cash compensation varies significantly across geographies, reflecting both cost-of-living and firm-mix differences.

• North America: ~$240,000
• APAC: ~$200,000
• MENA: ~$145,000
• Europe: ~$130,000
• Latin & South America: ~$95,000

Latin & South America show the highest reliance on variable pay, while Europe and MENA remain more base-heavy. North America establishes the global compensation spine, anchored by larger AUM funds and more bonus-levered structures.

Compensation by AUM Band
AUM remains one of the strongest predictors of cash compensation. Mega-funds pay the most and rely more heavily on bonuses.
Median Total Cash by AUM:

• $2.5B+ AUM: ~$265,000
• $1.0–2.49B: ~$250,000
• $500–999M: ~$180,000
• $250–499M: ~$195,000
• $100–249M: ~$155,000
• < $100M: ~$130,000

Talent at mega-funds earns $100,000+ more in total cash than peers at sub-$250M funds. Bonus reliance is also highest at large, multi-fund platforms (~18–21% of total compensation).

Compensation by Firm Type / Asset Class
Growth and private equity, as well as corporate venture, consistently sit at the top of the cash compensation ladder.

• Growth / Private Equity: ~$240,000 total (base ~$210,000, bonus ~$50,000)
• Corporate VC: ~$225,000 total (base ~$175,000, bonus ~$30,000)
• Traditional Venture Capital: ~$200,000 total (base ~$150,000, bonus ~$25,000)
• Other: ~$185,000 totalGrowth and PE roles are the most bonus-leveraged, while traditional VC roles retain a higher share of guaranteed pay.

Where Base vs. Bonus Diverge Most
The widest gaps between base and bonus occur in:

• Growth/PE platform roles
• Mega-funds and upper-mid-size AUM funds
• North America and Latin & South America (higher variable reliance)
• Talent and Product/Data roles, which have the most incentive-driven structures

In contrast, marketing, community, and operations-heavy roles skew more heavily toward base salary with modest variable components.

• 26% of respondents received no increase this year
• 22% received a 5% or smaller increase

These two buckets alone account for nearly half of all respondents, likely contributing to more moderate satisfaction levels.

What Predicts Satisfaction?
1.) Pay Level Matters—But Not as Much as Progression
When segmented by pay quartile, higher-compensated employees consistently report higher satisfaction. The linear relationship—with high n-counts across quartiles—suggests platform professionals have a strong internal reference point for what is “fair” compensation for their role, fund size, and seniority. Firms should treat that signal seriously.But the most powerful predictor is change, not level:

• Respondents with 10%+ raises show nearly a full point higher satisfaction than those with no raise.
• Those receiving ≤5% increases report satisfaction levels nearly identical to those with no increase.
• This dynamic holds regardless of seniority, indicating that even well-paid senior employees value progress more than static compensation.

In short: Movement = satisfaction; stagnation = dissatisfaction.

2.) Seniority Strongly Correlates with Satisfaction
VPs, Directors, and Partner-level platform leaders report higher compensation satisfaction than analysts and associates—even after controlling for pay. This may signal:

• Greater recognition and influence at senior levels,
• Better alignment between role scope and compensation, and/or
• Generational differences in expectations around advancement and reward.

Regardless of the cause, title progression and perceived influence matter as much as pay itself.

3.) Pay Increases are a More Accurate Predictor Than Pay Levels
When comparing satisfaction with pay increases across levels, satisfaction scores remain remarkably consistent. Whether someone is an Associate or a VP, a 10% raise produces the same uplift in sentiment, suggesting that the psychological effect of recognition is universal across seniority levels.

4.) Promotion Processes are a Critical Hidden Driver
One of the clearest predictors of low satisfaction has nothing to do with pay at all: lack of a formal promotion process .

Employees who report that their firm lacks a clear framework for evaluating or advancing talent show significantly lower satisfaction, even when their compensation is competitive for their role and level.

This finding reinforces a broader theme across the survey: Platform professionals value clarity, progress, and fairness as much as—if not more than—absolute dollars.

Career Intentions & Satisfaction
Nearly half of respondents (47%) view platform as their long-term career path, while smaller groups see it as a stepping stone to operating roles (13%), founding their own company (6%), or investing (4%). A notable 22% remain unsure about where the role leads.

These intentions map to satisfaction levels. Those who see platform as a long-term destination generally report higher compensation satisfaction, mirroring themes around clarity, progression, and firm investment. By contrast, respondents who are uncertain about their future or view platform as a transitional role tend to show lower satisfaction, even when their pay is competitive.

In short, career clarity and a clear future in platform are strong predictors of overall sentiment, while uncertainty aligns with weaker satisfaction.

The 2025 VC Platform Compensation Survey is more than a benchmarking tool—it’s a strategic instrument for shaping careers, firm design, and the future of the platform function.

For Platform Professionals
Use the data to inform your own career and compensation trajectory: 

• Benchmark your total compensation against peers by fund size, geography, and seniority.
• Identify pathways to advancement by comparing role scope, team structure, and pay progression.
• Leverage insights in negotiation and reviews—anchoring conversations in industry norms while articulating the unique value your role creates.
• Track non-monetary indicators (title alignment, firm support, growth sentiment) to evaluate long-term career sustainability, not just pay.

For Firms
The data reveals both competitive pressure and opportunity. Leading firms are:

• Reevaluating pay architecture to align compensation with firm size, strategic impact, and evolving role scope.
• Expanding carry participation to include key platform leaders—recognizing their direct influence on fund performance and founder outcomes.
• Clarifying role levels and expectations to reduce ambiguity across titles and compensation bands.
• Integrating structured feedback and growth pathways to retain top performers in an increasingly competitive market for platform talent.

Together, these insights equip individuals, firms, and the broader community to build more transparent, equitable, and high-performing venture organizations—where platform talent is recognized as central to value creation.