--- title: "Who funded startups hire: data from 406 placements, 2022 to 2026" description: "Funded.club placement data, 2022 to 2026: engineering stayed at a third of startup hires while sales and marketing grew from 30% to 48%. Method and charts." image: https://funded.club/hubfs/og_image_funded.png --- [![Primary\_logo](https://funded.club/hubfs/Primary_logo.svg)](https://funded.club/) [Book a call](https://funded.club/contact-us) - [Hire](https://funded.club) - [Pricing](https://funded.club/pricing) - [Find a job](https://funded.club/startupjobs) - [Case Studies](https://funded.club/case-studies) - [Locally](https://funded.club/case-studies/locally) - [Supernova](https://funded.club/case-studies/supernova) - [Isolocity](https://funded.club/case-studies/isolocity) - [WeTravel](https://funded.club/case-studies/wetravel) - [Digital Science](https://funded.club/case-studies/digital-science) - [Blog](https://funded.club/blog-results) - [Resources](https://funded.club/resources) - [Predict success](https://signup.predict.ventures/) - [Growth Planner](https://funded.club/growth-planner) - [Glossary](https://funded.club/glossary) - [FAQ](https://funded.club/faq) - [Contact us](https://funded.club/contact-us) [Book a call](https://funded.club/contact-us) - Engagement options: - [Hiring solutions](https://funded.club) - [Pay-as-you-go](https://funded.club/pricing) - Membership plan # Who funded startups hire: data from 406 placements, 2022 to 2026 [Ray Gibson](https://funded.club/blog/author/ray-gibson) Nov 15, 2026, 5:40:28 AM *Updated November 2026* Across 406 placements Funded.club made for 164 startups between January 2022 and November 2026, engineering held steady at about a third of hires every year, while sales and marketing grew from 30% of hires in 2022 to 48% in 2024 to 2026. Engineering hires skewed senior, go-to-market hires skewed towards lead and manager titles, and most hires came from startups that hired with us more than once. ## What this data is, and what it isn't This is our own placement record: every completed hire Funded.club invoiced between 5 January 2022 and 2 November 2026. It covers 406 placements at 164 startups and scale-ups across Europe, the UK, the Americas and APAC. For 358 of those placements the record holds a job title we could classify, and those 358 are the basis for every percentage below. It is one recruiting partner's book, not the market. It shows which roles funded startups chose to hand to an external recruiter, which skews towards hires that are hard to fill through inbound applications. Years are based on the date the hire was invoiced, and role families come from the job title. No candidate or customer is named. **Method in one line:** 406 completed placements, January 2022 to November 2026; 358 with a classifiable job title, grouped into eight role families and five seniority bands by keyword; periods are 2022 (148 hires), 2023 (84) and 2024 to 2026 (126). ## Finding 1: engineering is a third of hires, every year Funding markets moved a long way between 2022 and 2026. The engineering share of our placements barely did: 37% in 2022, 36% in 2023 and 35% in 2024 to 2026. Across the whole period, engineering was the largest single family at 36% of hires, followed by sales at 20% and marketing at 15%. Share of placements by role family, 2022 to 2026 (358 hires) Engineering 36% Sales 20% Marketing 15% Operations, finance and people 9% Product and design 7% Leadership (title only) 5% Customer success and support 4% Data 3% Source: Funded.club placement record. "Leadership (title only)" is a senior title that does not name a function; a VP of Sales counts under sales. Bar lengths are scaled so the largest family fills most of the row. The practical reading for a founder: whatever the funding climate, the engineering hires you can't fill yourself don't go away. Budget for them as a constant, not a cycle. ## Finding 2: go-to-market hiring went from a third to a half The big shift is on the revenue side. Sales and marketing together were 30% of our placements in 2022, 26% in 2023 and 48% in 2024 to 2026. Marketing alone went from 12% to 23%. Operations, finance and people roles, which were 21% of hires in 2023, did not appear among the classifiable titles at all in the later period. Role mix by period 2022 (148 hires) Eng 37% GTM 30% Other 33% 2023 (84 hires) Eng 36% GTM 26% Other 38% 2024 to 2026 (126 hires) Eng 35% GTM 48% Other 17% "GTM" is sales and marketing. "Other" is product and design, data, customer success, operations and leadership titles. We checked whether a few large customers caused this. Counting at most three hires per customer in each period, the sales and marketing share still rises, from 27% in 2022 to 52% in 2024 to 2026. Our reading is that startups raising in the tighter market of the last two years were asked to show revenue sooner, and hired for it. ## Finding 3: who gets hired at which level Seniority looked very different by function. Of the engineering placements, 47% carried a senior title and only one was junior. Sales and marketing went the other way: 43% of sales hires and 39% of marketing hires were lead or manager titles, the people who build the function rather than work inside it. | Function | Senior title | Lead or manager | Head of, VP or C-level | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Engineering (129) | 47% | 10% | 1% | | Sales (72) | 22% | 43% | 8% | | Marketing (54) | 9% | 39% | 11% | Across all functions, 11% of placements were head of, VP or C-level, and that share stayed between 10% and 11% in every period. Startups did not stop making senior leadership hires when funding tightened. ## Finding 4: startups that hire once usually hire again Of the 164 startups in the record, 79, almost half, made two or more hires with us, and those repeat customers account for 79% of all 406 placements. For a founder, that is a reminder to treat the first external search as the start of a working relationship, and to judge a recruiter on whether you would use them for the next hire. ## A worked example: reading the mix against your own plan Say a Series A SaaS startup plans ten hires for the next year: six engineers, two account executives, one product designer and one marketing manager. Laid against the 2024 to 2026 mix, the plan is heavy on engineering (60% against 35%) and light on go-to-market (30% against 48%). That does not make the plan wrong. A product with no revenue yet may need the engineers first. But it is worth asking the question our data raises: if your next round will be judged on revenue, who on this list builds it? Swapping one engineer for a sales development rep, or bringing the marketing hire forward a quarter, changes the plan's balance without changing its size. Our [hiring toolkits](https://funded.club/blog/startup-hiring-toolkits) cover all of these roles, and the [first 10 hires after funding](https://funded.club/blog/first-10-hires-after-funding) guide covers the order. ## Where Funded.club fits We are a fixed-fee recruiting partner for funded startups, and these hires are our own work. A dedicated recruiter runs each search end to end, with the first screened candidates within 7 days. We charge a low fixed fee agreed upfront, averaging 6 to 9% of salary, from $4,900 to $21,900 per hire. See [pricing](https://funded.club/pricing). ## Frequently asked questions ### Where does this startup hiring data come from? From Funded.club's own placement record: 406 completed hires for 164 startups, invoiced between January 2022 and November 2026. Percentages use the 358 placements with a classifiable job title. ### Which roles do startups hire most often through a recruiter? In our data, engineering roles were the most common at 36% of placements, followed by sales at 20% and marketing at 15%. ### Has startup hiring shifted towards sales and marketing? In our placements, yes. Sales and marketing rose from 30% of hires in 2022 to 48% in 2024 to 2026, while engineering stayed at about a third. ### Can I use these figures? Yes, with a link to this page as the source. Please describe them as Funded.club placement data, not market-wide statistics. Worth a brief chat about your next hire? [Book a free call](https://funded.club/contact-us). ## Hiring after a funding round? First candidates in 7 days. Fixed-fee, no commission. [See pricing](https://funded.club/pricing) [Book a free call](https://funded.club/contact-us) [Try the Growth Planner](https://funded.club/growth-planner) [![Primary\_logo](https://funded.club/hubfs/funded-images2022/Primary_logo.svg)](https://funded.club) © 2019-2026 Funded.club B.V. All Rights Reserved. Chamber of Commerce: 63083809    VAT (BTW): NL855084844B01 ## Contact Us - [Hiring service](https://funded.club) - [Pricing - Recruiting projects](https://funded.club/pricing) - [Find a job](https://funded.club/startupjobs) - [Our team](https://funded.club/fundedteam) - [Blog](https://funded.club/blog) - [Case studies](https://funded.club/case-studies) - [Startup resources](https://funded.club/resources) - [FAQ](https://funded.club/faq) - [Contact Us](https://funded.club/contact-us) ## Follow Us © 2019-2026 All rights reserved. - [Privacy Policy](https://www.iubenda.com/privacy-policy/56133290) - [Cookie policies](https://www.iubenda.com/privacy-policy/56133290/cookie-policy) - [Terms of Use](https://funded.club/terms) ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@id" : "https://funded.club/#ray-gibson" }, "dateModified" : "2026-11-14", "datePublished" : "2026-11-14", "headline" : "Who funded startups hire: data from 406 placements, 2022 to 2026", "image" : [ "" ], "mainEntityOfPage" : { "@id" : "https://funded.club/blog/startup-hiring-data", "@type" : "WebPage" }, "publisher" : { "@id" : "https://funded.club/#organization" } } ``` ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@id" : "https://funded.club/#organization", "@type" : "Organization", "areaServed" : [ "North America", "Europe", "Asia-Pacific" ], "description" : "Fixed-fee recruiting partner for funded startups and fast-growing teams across North America, Europe and APAC. 500+ startups helped since 2019. 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