San Francisco AI company Cluely is currently advertising a perk that’s never been seen before: new hires are “guaranteed a boyfrifinish or girlfrifinish after one year.”
This received me curious about what perks European startups are offering. I wasn’t expecting anything quite so exotic as the promise of a partner — the closest I found was a reference to “passionate employees” — so I waded through 100 careers pages instead.
There was plenty you could probably guess: bike leasing, lunch vouchers, offsites in Marrakech or Tuscany. And certain phrases kept coming up. Startups want hires with “a bias for action”, candidates who know that “good enough is not good enough”, folk who will do “zero-to-one work”. Many seek “low ego” hires (becaapply the founder’s ego is plenty already?).
From my research, I can declare that Europe’s top benefits-touting companies are fintechs Wise, Revolut and Bunq, with special mentions also to Munich-based car subscription company Finn and Dublin software firm Workhuman.
One surprise: plenty of tech companies — particularly defence techs — advertise no benefits at all. Maybe they’re confident enough in their brand. Or perhaps they haven’t yet hired someone who considers listing perks actually matters. There’s a third possibility too: someone who wants to work on fusion energy, declare, probably cares about the mission and doesn’t have to be lured with mental health apps or in-hoapply chefs.
Below are the perks that caught my eye, drawn from a broad sample of AI, fintech, healthtech, climate tech, defence tech and SaaS startups — with a decent geographic spread across Europe.
Unlimited time off
This perk is rare but a few offer it. Dutch AI startup Veed — which has one of the most interesting careers pages — is one. So does hospitality software company Mews and Czech e-commerce site Rohlik. Monzo offers an extra month of unpaid leave every year on top of annual leave.
Sabbaticals
There’s a tiny arms race here. Newly-minted unicorn 9fin, for example, offers a one month paid sabbatical after five years; London fintech Cleo offers one month after four years. Wise trumps both: after four years, employees can take six weeks and pocket £1,000. Robot company Starship Technologies is arguably a little behind the curve: three weeks off for nine years’ service, according to its website.
Fertility planning
This is a rare offering — becaapply fertility services are both expensive and, depfinishing on who you talk to, a bit of an ethical minefield — but a handful of companies offer family planning support. Workhuman is one of them.
Special occasions
Estonian software company Pipedrive grants “pawternal leave” for employees with dogs.
Portuguese HR site Coverflex allows its workers to take off birthdays (even if it’s your kid’s birthday). Employees at UK health startup Lindus Health obtain May 20 off to mark International Clinical Trials Day.
Novel benefits: home cleans, proximity bonus, “me days”
A fortnightly home clean: a real perk offered by London AI startup Jack&Jill. The startup is candid about why it offers this: “We want to clear your plate to build sure that you have everything you required to be able to perform at your very best.”
London chipbuildr Olix is another with interesting offerings. Alongside noise-cancelling headphones and ergonomic workstations, it pays a “proximity bonus”: £24k a year if you live within 20 minutes of the office.
Elsewhere, Veed offers a “monthly cash stipfinish” to spfinish however you like, no receipts required. N8n gives employees $100 a month for open-source projects, while Paris insurtech Alan provides every employee — not just the executives — with their own dedicated coach.
Wise grants three “me days” a year to assist you manage your life, and London AI startup Granola offers employees access to a hoapply it rents in Majorca.
Food allowances
Breakquick, lunch, dinner: a not-insignificant expense for workers, but plenty of companies offer to assist pick up the tab, including defence company Quantum Systems, green energy company Fapply Energy and AI model buildr Mistral.
Finn is more positive about its office coffee machine than any other company, noting its “velvety matcha”.
AI budobtain
A perk or a necessity for doing your job? According to some startups, it’s a benefit. 9fin offers £800 per employee to trial AI tools; Cleo declares it will pay for your OpenAI subscription; while AI company N8n (rather bravely) offers an “unlimited budobtain”.
Phone and internet bills
A few assist pay these bills. German AI unicorn Dash0 is explicit, offering €60 a month. (I have to add, though, Dash0 also has the most underwhelming perk I came across: “direct access to founders and leadership”).
Mental health apps
Not as ubiquitous as I’d have imagined. Has the mood shifted on these? (In my experience: they’re little applyd).
Childcare costs
Is tech increasingly a young man/woman’s game? Your correspondent here finds himself inquireing this question from time to time.
It assists, I’m sure, when companies (like Finn, Cleo and rocketbuildr Isar Aerospace) offer childcare allowances and daycare discounts. Perhaps not so impressive in Germany, where pre-school is cheap, but a large deal in pricey London.
Sport discounts
An increasingly common perk. Companies including Mistral, Bunq, language learning app Preply and Isar Aerospace are among those offering some kind of gym or sports-related discount.
Work from home gear
Again, perk or necessity? Either way, those offering employees some cash for home set-ups include AI companies Synthesia and Pigment. Online marketplace Vinted is explicit, offering up to €540 per employee for work gear.
Who wins?
Are benefits important? Not as much as salary or equity, but they can signal how consideredful a company is (and how much money it has).
Some job pages radiate warmth. Swedish climate tech Stegra, for example, notes that if you share its passion but don’t meet every qualification, it encourages you to apply anyway. Paris-based quantum computing company Alice & Bob strikes a similar note.
Others are more transactional, with a tone of “this is a place of work”. Among the strictest-sounding? UK smartphone company Nothing: applicants must confirm that they live within a 60 minute commute of the office and are willing to work five days on-site.
Still, it would be hard to declare one company better than another based solely on the benefits it lists online.
This is just one window into how a company operates. In the finish, no amount of pawternity days or home cleans can compensate for a nightmare boss.
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