08 · Financials

Use of Funds

£600k pre-seed round. It funds a founding team of four on payroll from M1 and the first sales hire, through to sustained operating profit from M19. It is sized so cash stays above £150k even if every Enterprise deal lands six months late.

£600k Pre-seed round
£3.6m post Post-money valuation
M19 Operating profit from
£184k Lowest cash, stress case (M23)
Allocation split £918k spend · M1–18
People · £630k · 69%
Production · 31%
People — 68.7% · £630,383 Production — 31.3% · £287,350

Allocation by category, M1–18

Category Spend % of spend
Founding team ×4
CEO, Engineer, Developer & Associate · £75k ×3 and £55k ×1. From M1 		£420,000 45.8%
Sales
Salesperson 1 from M9, salesperson 2 from M13 · £55k base + 10% commission on first-year ACV 		£142,833 15.6%
Employer NI and pension
NI after the Employment Allowance · 3% pension 		£67,550 7.4%
Pilot delivery
£2,500 setup and support per pilot 		£55,000 6.0%
AI onboarding
Document ingestion per new account · £750 Growth, £5,000 Enterprise, £15,000 large deal 		£59,750 6.5%
AI and infrastructure
£700/month base · £50 per Growth, £250 per Enterprise, £750 per large-deal account each month 		£35,400 3.9%
Professional services
Bookkeeping, accountant, legal, cyber 		£35,100 3.8%
Marketing
Content, digital, hospitality · sales travel per salesperson 		£33,600 3.7%
Events programme
Eight events a year, one person · £18.3k a year 		£32,100 3.5%
Office, apps and hardware £36,400 4.0%
Cash at M18
Operating profit sustained from the following month 		£288,500 —

£589k of revenue is collected over the same 18 months, so the £918k spend is funded by the raise plus revenue. Cash at M18 also reflects quarterly VAT timing. Percentages are rounded.

Monthly outgoings

There are no costs at M0. Costs start in M1 with a fixed floor of about £32k a month: the four-person team at £26.4k including NI and pension, plus about £5.6k for professional services, marketing, office, apps, hardware and base infrastructure. Pilot delivery, AI onboarding, commission and events come on top, so some months run higher than others.

Months 1–8
Founding team and first pilots
£41.6k / month
Of which team £29.3k. The founder and three engineers build and deliver the first pilots; founder-led sales and the spring events programme.
Months 9–12
First salesperson
£48.2k / month
Of which team £34.5k. The first sales hire lands at M9, ahead of Year 2 conversation volume.
Months 13–20
Second salesperson
£66.1k / month
Of which team £43.4k. More pilots and onboarding, and the £120k deal at M18. Cash reaches its base-case low of £281k at M19, the first month of sustained operating profit.
Months 21–24
Customer success
£80.4k / month
Of which team £55.8k. Two customer success hires once Enterprise reaches 10 accounts.
Months 25–36
Scale
£102.5k / month
Of which team £67.9k. Third salesperson, third customer success hire and the £200k deal. Cash builds to £1.10m by M36.

How the raise is sized. In the stress case every Enterprise and large-deal win lands six months late. ARR at M36 is still £1.91m, and the business needs £416k at its low point in M23. A £600k raise keeps cash above £150k throughout, with a lowest point of £184k. In the base case the lowest cash is £281k (M19). Billing Enterprise annually in advance would add further headroom.

Full financial model — editable Excel with every assumption, the monthly base and stress cases, raise sizing and the five-year milestones

Download model (.xlsx)