How long a raise takes, and how to run it so it doesn't take longer
The realistic timeline for a £100k–£2m round in 2026, the four phases, why raises stall in phase three, how to create momentum without lying, and the week-by-week plan.
Founders budget six weeks for a raise and it takes five months. The difference is not bad luck; it is that a raise has four phases and founders plan for one of them. Here is the realistic shape, and how to run it so the slow phase is shorter.
The four phases
- Preparation (2–4 weeks). The six sections, the plan, the deck, the video, the forecast, the data room, advance assurance applied for. Everything in the readiness check. Founders skip this and pay for it in phase three.
- Launch and interest (2–6 weeks). The listing goes live; investors express interest; conversations open. On Find this is where the platform does its work — every certified investor sees the listing, the ones who like it heart it. The volume of interest in the first fortnight tells you a lot: lots of hearts and few conversions usually means the card is good and the numbers are not; few hearts means the card is wrong.
- Conversion (4–10 weeks). Interested investors become committed ones. This is where raises stall. Investors who liked the listing want a call, then the data room, then a week to think, then a call with their accountant about SEIS. Each step is reasonable; together they take months, and an investor who goes quiet for three weeks has often moved on without saying so.
- Close (3–6 weeks). Term sheet, legals, subscription agreements, SEIS/EIS compliance, money in. With a solicitor who does seed rounds and a data room that exists, four weeks. Without, ten.
Total: three to six months for a well-run round. Plan for four.
Why phase three stalls, and what to do
Investors do not say no; they go quiet. They are busy, the decision is optional, and nothing forces it. The founder's job in phase three is to create reasons to decide: a first close date, a lead investor who has committed, new numbers every month, a deadline on the SEIS allocation. None of these should be invented — investors can tell — but all of them are legitimate when true, and a founder who runs the process with dates is treated differently from one who waits.
The week-by-week plan
- Weeks 1–3. Preparation. Do not list until the video exists.
- Week 4. List. Tell everyone you know that you have. Post the first update.
- Weeks 5–8. Respond to every interest within a day. Calls within the week. Data room link to anyone who asks a second question. Identify the lead: the investor who is most engaged and could write the largest cheque.
- Week 9. Agree terms with the lead. Announce a first close date six weeks out to everyone else.
- Weeks 10–14. Convert. Weekly update to interested investors: who has committed, how much is left, the date. Legals in parallel.
- Week 15. First close. Money in. Keep the listing open for a second close if there is room.
- Week 16+. Second close, or close the listing, and send the first investor update.
Running it without losing the business
A raise takes a day a week from the founder doing it and half a day from whoever does the numbers. Block it. Do not let the raise become the business — the investors are funding the business, and if the numbers slip during the raise, the raise slips with them. Monthly numbers that improve during the process are the single most persuasive thing you can show a wavering investor.
Questions founders ask
"Should I list before advance assurance comes back?"
Yes — say "applied for" and the date. It usually arrives during phase two. Investors who need it will wait a few weeks; investors who need it and it never comes will not, so apply early.
"How many investors do I need to talk to?"
For a £400k round in £20k–£50k tickets, expect to convert one in four or five serious conversations. Forty conversations for ten investors is normal. Find's job is to make the forty come to you.
"It's been eight weeks and nobody has committed."
Look at the funnel. No hearts: the card. Hearts but no calls: the numbers or the video. Calls but no commitments: the terms, the valuation, or a concern nobody has said aloud — ask the most engaged investor directly what is stopping them.