How to Write the Funding Ask Slide in a Pitch Deck

Start with the amount and the purpose

Make the funding amount and currency easy to find. If the amount is a range, explain what changes between the lower and upper cases. Avoid making the reader search across a financial summary, a roadmap and a closing slide to reconstruct the request.

Then state the purpose in a sentence. Expanding a sales team, completing a product release and developing a project to its next decision point are different uses of capital. The sentence should describe the planned progress clearly enough for the rest of the slide to support it.

Connect capital to milestones

A budget explains where money is allocated. The presentation also needs to explain what that allocation is intended to achieve. Connect the activities being funded to milestones the reader can understand and, where possible, assess.

In its January 2016 Guide to Seed Fundraising, Y Combinator connects the fundraising amount to a credible plan and the next milestone. That is a useful communication principle. The article's historical figures and financing assumptions should not be treated as current market benchmarks.

For the slide, describe the milestone, the work required and the relevant timing. Keep the difference between an activity and a result clear. Hiring people is an activity; the capability or progress that hiring is intended to support needs a separate explanation.

Source: Y Combinator — A Guide to Seed Fundraising

Give the use-of-funds breakdown a job

A pie chart labelled product, sales and operations can summarize allocation, but it leaves the relationship between spending and progress unexplained. Decide which question the visual should answer before choosing its format.

If the important point is allocation, a labelled bar or simple table may be enough. If timing matters, connect the workstreams to a timeline. If one dependency determines the sequence, a diagram can make that dependency more visible than a percentage chart.

Use the approved financial model as the source. Keep the categories, period and treatment of contingency consistent with it. If the slide simplifies the underlying model, make it easy to locate the supporting detail.

Keep the basis of the numbers visible

State which period the plan covers and whether the figures are estimates, forecasts or agreed commitments. Explain what the total includes. A reader should be able to tell whether the amount describes this proposed raise, a wider financing requirement or expenditure across several stages.

Where runway is shown, use the definition and assumptions agreed by the finance team. Avoid placing a time estimate next to a funding figure without explaining the relationship. Timing can depend on the hiring plan, revenue assumptions, expenditure sequence and other conditions in the model.

The deck does not need to reproduce every calculation. It does need a readable main claim and enough context to prevent a misleading interpretation.

Distinguish current facts from planned progress

Current cash, amounts already received, expressions of interest and future fundraising plans represent different states. Label them precisely rather than combining them into one impressive-looking total.

Apply the same discipline to the milestones. Distinguish completed work, work in progress and future targets. If a milestone depends on customer adoption, a partner decision, a permit or a technical result, show the dependency. A planned result should remain identifiable as a target.

Use a simple structure for the slide

The following is an illustrative content structure. Adapt it to the financing plan and audience rather than treating every item as a separate required slide.

Place the amount and purpose at the top. Underneath, connect the major workstreams to the milestones they support. Add the relevant period and key assumptions where they can be read without searching an appendix. Reserve the appendix for the detailed model and evidence.

• Funding sought: amount, currency and the scope of the request.
• Purpose: the progress this capital is intended to support.
• Use of funds: the main workstreams, consistent with the financial model.
• Milestones: the planned results and how progress will be assessed.
• Timing: the period covered and important dependencies.
• Assumptions: the conditions that materially affect the plan.
• Next step: the action requested from this particular audience.

Check that the ask follows from the rest of the deck

The funding ask should be understandable in light of the opportunity, business model, current position and delivery plan already presented. If a major expense or new initiative appears for the first time on the closing slide, the earlier narrative may need more context.

Read the opening proposition and the funding ask together. The connection should be easy to explain: this is the opportunity, this is the current position, and this is the progress the requested capital is intended to make possible.

Pitchwave develops pitch deck structure, narrative, copy and presentation design around that connection. The work starts with the available business information and the decision the presentation needs to support.