How many months of runway do we have?
№ 221 · Cash runway
Definition
MetricMonths of cash runway
Unitmonths of cash at current net burn
Single line showing months of cash remaining at current burn. Standard board metric. Build from current cash divided by trailing-3-month average burn. Below 12 months triggers fundraising; below 6 triggers cost cuts. Example: $24M cash / $1.8M monthly burn = 13 months (start raising).
Benchmarks
| Bottom 30% | Median | Top 30% |
|---|---|---|
| under 9 months | 13 to 14 months | 24 months or more |
VC-backed private technology companies, all stages, US and Europe weighted, data through Q4 2025, runway defined as cash and equivalents divided by trailing net monthly burn · SVB is the only large-sample publisher that prints a runway median, at about 14 months, and it gives a sector spread rather than a quartile distribution. The top30 and bottom30 figures here are inferred from that spread plus the 24 to 30 month post-raise planning target that both SVB and Carta point to given lengthening round intervals, so they are directional. Definition moves this number more than anything else: gross burn and net burn can produce runway figures that differ by half, and a runway calculated on a single month that contains an annual insurance or audit payment reads 2 to 3 months short. The figures describe venture-backed companies only. For bootstrapped or profitable businesses, where SaaS Capital finds median spend at 96 percent of ARR, runway is not the binding constraint and this chart should be replaced with a liquidity coverage view.
Category split omitted: Only SVB publishes a runway split by sector, and a single Tier 2 source is not enough to support a category table.
When it looks bad
The runway line bends downward while the cash balance line is still falling in a straight diagonal, which means burn is accelerating faster than the balance is depleting, and the curve crosses twelve months with no term sheet signed.
Cash of $4.2M with net burn rising from $340k to $470k a month across one quarter: runway reads 14 months in January and 9 months in April with no change made to the spending plan.
What to do about it
- Rebuild the chart on a trailing three-month average net burn and plot two lines, plan and a downside case where new bookings fall 30 percent. A single-month burn denominator makes the number swing by 2 to 3 months on payroll and annual vendor timing alone, which is enough to trigger the wrong decision.
- Shift billing mix toward annual upfront on renewals and new logos. Moving 20 percent of the base from monthly to annual prepay pulls a year of cash forward on that cohort and typically buys 1 to 2 months of runway with no reduction in spend, at a cost of a 10 to 15 percent discount.
- Start the raise at 12 months of runway rather than 6. SVB reports that median time between rounds has stretched to the point where a seed to Series D path now runs roughly 10 years, and that nearly 18 percent of 2025 Series A rounds followed a seed extension, so a 6-month start leaves no fallback if the process slips a quarter.
- Separate contractually committed outflows from discretionary ones on the same chart. Runway that is 60 percent committed is a different instrument from runway that is 60 percent discretionary, and only the second one responds to a cost decision.
Sources
- SaaStr (reporting SVB) Reports the median VC-backed tech company at about 14 months of runway, up from 13 the prior year, with frontier tech at roughly 10 to 12 months and fintech at 14 to 16 months, and notes that nearly 18 percent of 2025 Series A rounds came from companies that had already raised a seed extension. saastr.com ↗
- Silicon Valley Bank Notes that suppressed investment continues to pressure company runway and that companies increasingly use extension rounds as a stopgap, with burn multiples for AI companies running higher than other sectors. svb.com ↗
- Silicon Valley Bank Reports that AI companies account for 36 percent of VC deals and 58 percent of total VC investment while showing higher burn rates and lower profit margins than non-AI peers. svb.com ↗
- Silicon Valley Bank Finds a healthy company-level recovery underway in 2025 while noting that suppressed investment continues to pressure runway, with the median Series A company at about $2.5M of annual revenue. svb.com ↗
- Carta Reports startups on Carta raised nearly $120 billion in 2025, up about 17 percent on 2024, but with total round count at a six-year low, meaning capital concentrated into fewer companies. carta.com ↗
- Carta Reports $79.8 billion raised across 3,620 venture rounds through Q3 2025 and notes bridge rounds at 16.6 percent of all VC cash raised as of Q2 2025. carta.com ↗
- SaaS Capital Finds median total spend across all departments at 96 percent of ARR for bootstrapped companies against 101 percent for equity-backed companies, so roughly half of equity-backed companies operate at a loss while most bootstrapped ones do not. saas-capital.com ↗