§01Between January 2025 and April 2026, Vertex tracked 412 first-line technology offers across the UK and EU, captured via either our own placements or anonymised market intelligence shared by candidate networks. The headline finding: at Series B and beyond, the median value of equity grants now exceeds the median annual base salary for the first time in the dataset's history.

§02This is a meaningful structural change. As recently as Q3 2024, the median equity-to-base ratio for a Series B CTO sat at 0.78 — equity was still treated as upside, not as headline. By Q1 2026 that figure had crossed 1.07. At Series C, the gap is wider still: the median Series C CTO offer in our dataset places equity at 1.34x base.

§03Two forces are driving this. First, late-stage compression: the gap between CFO and CTO compensation has narrowed sharply, and the equity grant is the only lever left for boards that want to anchor a senior technologist to a multi-year outcome. Second, the cohort effect: Series A founders who were themselves engineers are now Series C CEOs, and they are willing to underwrite equity grants their non-engineer predecessors would have called dilutive.

§04For candidates, the implication is direct. Negotiating a Series B+ CTO role on base alone is a tax. The negotiating leverage now sits in vesting cliffs, acceleration, and refresh schedules. For boards, the implication is structural: the equity bands set at Series B are now the binding constraint on every subsequent senior technical hire.

§05A note on the methodology: the dataset spans 412 offers across the UK and EU, with 71% sourced from Vertex placements and 29% from anonymised candidate-network intelligence. Equity values are computed at the most recent priced round; we have not modelled forward dilution.