Financing Need, Sizing the Raise

Calculates how much a startup needs to raise, the cumulative net burn to the next milestone plus a minimum cash floor minus cash on hand. Inputs are monthly net burn, months to the milestone, the minimum cash floor, and current cash on hand.

Interactive Tool

Monthly net burn

Months to next milestone

Minimum cash floor

Cash on hand

Financing need

$1.45M

amount to raise

Runway today

5.3

months at current burn

Cumulative burn

$1.80M

burn × months

+ Minimum cash

$0.45M

safety floor

− Cash on hand

$0.80M

already in bank

Financing need = cumulative net burn to the milestone + minimum cash − cash on hand. Raise for 18–24 months of runway, because the next round itself takes 3–6 months to close.

Learn the concept

This calculator comes from the free Entrepreneurial Finance course, where the concept is taught with readings, worked examples, and practice questions.

Open Entrepreneurial Finance

Built by Devon Coombs, CPA, MBA, Teaching Professor of Finance at Santa Clara University.