How to Prepare Your Financials for Fundraising: What Investors Actually Look At

The financial metrics investors examine first#

Before any investor reads a pitch deck in detail, they scan for the headline financial metrics that tell them whether the deal warrants deeper attention. Revenue run rate: what is the current annualised revenue — and is it growing? Revenue growth rate (MoM or YoY): how fast is the business growing — and is the growth rate accelerating or decelerating? Gross margin: what percentage of revenue is retained after direct costs? Burn rate and runway: how much cash is the business spending per month and how many months of cash does it have left? These four metrics in a single slide tell an experienced investor whether the business is at the early stage they fund, growing at the rate they require, and in a financial position that allows a productive fundraise timeline.

Unit economics: the numbers investors question hardest#

Investors spend significant time scrutinising unit economics because this is where most founder presentations overstate performance. CAC: investors will ask whether your CAC includes fully-loaded sales and marketing cost (including team salaries), not just media spend. LTV: investors will ask about your assumptions for customer lifespan and retention, and how these have held up in practice across cohorts with 12+ months of history. LTV:CAC ratio: investors want to see this above 3x — and they want to see it improving over time as the business scales. Payback period: investors want to see this below 12-18 months to ensure the business is not consuming capital simply to sustain growth.

Revenue quality: what investors mean by it#

Revenue quality refers to the sustainability and predictability of your revenue base. High-quality revenue: recurring subscription revenue from multiple customers with low concentration risk and proven retention rates. Low-quality revenue: one-off project revenue from a small number of large customers with high concentration risk and unpredictable recurrence. Investors will ask: what percentage of revenue is recurring or highly predictable? What is your largest customer as a percentage of total revenue (above 20% is a concentration risk flag)? What is your net revenue retention (do existing customers expand their spend over time)?

Burn and runway: the investor's risk lens#

Investors think carefully about burn and runway because it affects their risk position. They want to invest when a company has enough runway that the investment is not used simply to prevent imminent failure — ideally when a company has 9+ months of runway and is raising to accelerate, not survive. They also want to understand what the investment buys in terms of runway extension and milestones: if we invest £1 million at your current burn rate, how many months of runway does that create, and what milestones will the company reach within that runway that enable the next round?

Building your fundraising financial pack with AskBiz#

AskBiz generates the financial analysis and presentation materials that form the foundation of a fundraising pack. It calculates your MoM revenue growth rate, gross margin trend, CAC and LTV by channel, burn rate and runway, and revenue concentration metrics — and formats them as investor-ready outputs. Ask it: what is my 12-month revenue growth rate, how has my gross margin trended over the last 4 quarters, what is my LTV:CAC ratio by acquisition channel, how many months of runway do I have at current burn rate. These numbers, presented clearly and with honest commentary, form the credible financial story that serious investors respond to.