How to Model Revenue-Based Financing for Your Startup (Free Template)
Revenue-based financing (RBF) is one of the hottest alternative funding options for SaaS and subscription businesses. Unlike equity, you don't give up ownership. Unlike debt, payments scale with revenue. But how do you model if an RBF deal makes financial sense?
In this post, I'll walk through the key variables: financing amount, revenue share percentage, cap multiple, growth rate. Then I'll show you how to build a simple model in Google Sheets to compare RBF against venture debt and angel equity.
The Three Key Metrics
- Total repayment (vs. cap)
- Months to payoff
- Cost of capital (effective APR vs. equity dilution)
Sample Scenario
- $100k financing at 5% revenue share with 3x cap
- $50k monthly revenue, growing 3% monthly
- Result: paid off in ~38 months, total repayment ~$190k
Template
I've packaged this into a ready-to-use Google Sheets template with 6 tabs, all formulas pre-built. You can grab it here:
Revenue-Based Financing Model — Google Sheets (affordable at $29)
Use coupon code RBFMODEL for 20% off (first 50 buyers)
Drop a comment if you have questions on modeling RBF vs other structures. I reply to every comment.
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