Burn Rate & Runway Calculator South Africa — 2025-26

Gross burn: total monthly expenses (what goes out). Net burn: gross burn minus revenue (actual cash reduction per month). A company spending ₹10L/month with ₹4L revenue has ₹10L gross burn and ₹6L net burn. Investors watch net burn most closely — it tells them how fast you're really consuming cash.

There's no universal answer — it depends on revenue, stage, and growth rate. A good heuristic: burn should be justified by the growth it's generating. If you're spending ₹50L/month and growing revenue by ₹15L/month (LTV/CAC > 3), that burn may be justified. If you're spending ₹50L and growing revenue by ₹2L, something is wrong.

When runway drops below 18 months, start thinking about fundraising or profitability path. Below 12 months: actively fundraising or aggressively cutting costs. Below 6 months: in danger zone — very hard to close a funding round in less than 3–6 months even if investors are interested.

Paul Graham's framework: Default alive = if current growth rate continues and spending stays constant, you reach profitability before running out of money. Default dead = you run out of cash before breaking even. Know which situation you're in. Many founders are default dead without realizing it.

Indian startups typically burn significantly less than Silicon Valley peers — lower salaries, cheaper infrastructure, lower marketing costs in the early stages. An Indian SaaS company burning ₹20–50L/month at Series A is typical vs $500K–$1M/month in the US. This means Indian startups can often extend runway further on equivalent funding.