India, Feb. 23 -- There're signs of a disappearing freeze on funding for startups, but the chill has descended on pay hikes, it seems.

If 39% startups are going to fork out a 10-20% hike in the financial year ending March 31, 2025 (FY25) then a whopping 63% will keep it to that level in FY26 as well, shows The Pulse Of Tech report, the Annual Founder's Survey by Inc42.

The survey that covered more than 100 founders of leading startups operating in different business lifecycles - seed stage, growth stage and late stage - shows that 40% of respondents are looking to limit the hikes to 15% in 2025-26, while only 23% will shell out 16-20% increment.

"I believe that organisations providing salary increments of 9% to 12% are maintaining a he...