Guidance

Track 1: Investor Pitch Template

Published 2 December 2025

PREPARING FOR INVESTMENT 

INVESTOR PITCH TEMPLATE 

When raising investment, a clear, concise and evidence-backed pitch is crucial to capture investor interest quickly. This Pitch Template is a structured framework to help you craft an investable thesis that connects your company’s vision to a credible market opportunity.  

This template focuses on the essentials investors expect: explaining the Problem, Solution and Market (PSM) in simple terms; demonstrating grounded market sizing with defensible TAM/SAM/SOM assumptions; showing traction with real evidence; clarifying your focused competitive advantage; presenting a strong management team; and linking your narrative coherently to numbers, governance and sector-specific growth drivers. 

The goal is to help you convey your business potential clearly and persuasively, avoiding common pitch mistakes and ensuring the story resonates with investor due diligence priorities. By following this template, you showcase a business that is ambitious yet measurably investable. 

Pitch Template Slide Checklist 

• Cover slide   

• Summary and mission   

• The problem   

• Solution and opportunity   

• Market   

• Technology and / or product   

• Team (including advisors)   

• Business model   

• Competition, competitive advantage and barriers to entry   

• Traction and pipeline   

• Go-to-market plan   

• Financials   

• Funding history, the ask and use of funds   

• Closing slide – options   

The key elements of a pitch deck 

1. Cover slide 

• Company name, logo and tagline   

• Website and contact details   

• Logos key partners, clients and awards, if applicable   

Disclaimer (slide after cover slide 

• FCA regulated disclaimer   

2. Summary and mission 

Your elevator pitch:   

A short concise summary of what you do and your mission - it should be intriguing and culturally relevant.   

e.g. [Company X] is disrupting/facilitating/underpinning [xyz]. Founded in 201[ ], Company X has [ ] employees having raised £[ ] seed round from angels in 201[ ]. Company X has [x] customers and £[x]k MRR as at [mmm-yy]. Currently raising £[ ]m in Series A, of which £[ ]m is already committed from existing investors to facilitate [expansion to new markets/tech build/sales staff].   

Key facts and setting the scene:   

Why do you win and how the investors criteria are met. Think the ‘5M’s’: 

• Momentum: Traction - revenue, month of month growth, MRR, other KPIs   

• Market: How big   

• Machine: Tech - why specialise   

• Management: Rock star team - prior startup experience, done it before   

• Money: How much raising   

3. The problem 

What pain point are you solving?   

• Ensure this problem comes across as mission critical - state any user and market research you have to back up claims.   

• Be clear if this is a new problem your customers are dealing with or an old problem where you plan to bring a new/disruptive solution.   

• Normally if an investor gets involved, it is because of one of the following: 

  - They have experienced the problem in the past   

  - There is a clear sense of ROI for them   

  - Given their professional expertise, they understand it   

4. Solution and opportunity 

Define the solution / opportunity:   

• How does your solution harness the opportunity or solve the problem - the solution needs to be concise, clear and scalable.   

• Show how your customers see urgency in their problem (think “vitamin” - nice to have vs. “painkiller” - must have)? Focus on the business benefits of the solution and what they allow the customer to do, not just what the product does. Do you save people time? Money? Generate new revenue? Explain why it is compelling to your customers.   

• The solution needs to be graphically / visually represented - show screenshots.   

• Use user and market research to highlight benefits that lead into “Competitive Advantage”.   

5. Market 

• Represent and define the market you operate in.   

• Explain the market and sub-sectors.   

• Highlight the size of the market (and therefore opportunity) and historical / forecast market growth. This should be backed up with solid market research.   

• Use your current revenues to show your market share and forecast what share you could obtain in 3 – 5 years.   

• Be realistic i.e. if you are selling widgets, your market size is not the total industrial retail market, only the widget market.   

6. Technology and/or product 

• The investors looking at you may not necessarily share your level of expertise, so simply explain the technology you use.   

• What is the technology / product that you’ve built? Why is it special / cutting edge?   

• What is the secret sauce?   

• What is the IP? Are there any patents in the business?   

• What are the regulatory considerations? (If a regulated business, separate slide on regulations)   

7. Team (including advisors) 

• Highlight key management / board members.   

• Why is this the right team to execute the opportunity?   

• Highlight any experience of working in an early stage business, scaling / exiting a business.   

• Highlight any experience of working together previously; the founders’ chemistry.   

• For the slide - include headshots of each member and briefly describe their experience and role.   

8. Business model 

• The operating / revenue model of the business i.e. how do you make your money?   

• Explain fee structure and the interaction between different revenue streams, if possible, quantify this as currently revenue or % of current revenue / include unit economics.   

• Ensure business model is backed up by solid calculations and research.   

• Graphically / visually represent the business model.   

• Customer quotes from existing clients.   

9. Competition, competitive advantage and barriers to entry 

• Acknowledge competitors and show points of difference from your market research.   

• Use a matrix with traffic lights or quadrant box to highlight key features and differentiators between you and your competition.   

• Discuss and evidence any barriers to entry/defensibility you hold over incumbents / competitors and future entrants (the barriers to entry might be a separate slide).   

10. Traction and pipeline 

• Show traction to date including stats such as members, users, revenue, margins, growth, engagement (ideally this should be monthly).   

• Highlight your current pipeline, weighted and unweighted by stage of opportunities.   

• Highlight contracts signed and / or key clients including annual contract value if relevant.   

• Include company logos.   

11. Go-to-market plan 

• Explain your go-to-market strategy, highlighting: 

• Your customer acquisition strategy; how have you acquired customers so far and how will that change?   

• How do customers find you (key sales and marketing channels) and what are the customer acquisition costs for these channels?   

• How do you convert leads and what are your conversion rates?   

• What are your plans for sales and marketing going forward?   

• Use visuals to illustrate your go-to-market strategy.   

• Elaborate on the different stages.   

• What have you done to date and how successful has this been (evidence through KPIs, CAC vs LTV etc).   

12. Financials 

• Summarise your historical and forecast profit and loss account, drawing out key metrics (MRR, no. of customers, customer churn, gross margins).   

• Explain pricing model (recap on earlier slide).   

• Show contracted revenue in the forecast period.   

• Include a revenue bridge, bridging revenue to date to the full year forecast outturn.   

• Highlight forecast cash burn and state when you expect to become profitable (i.e. breakeven).   

• If relevant include - show month by month of key metrics e.g. number of users/customers for the next 24 months.   

• Impact of COVID-19:  

• You will need to include some element of scenario analysis into your financials.   

• Show the original plan and adjust for the impact of COVID so that investors can see the impact. This allows investors to see exposure and upside as one.   

• Make sure to include runway alongside cash burn (this will be a question investors ask so best to pre-empt the question).   

13. Fundraising history, the ask and use of funds 

• Describe your funding history and the amount you’re looking to raise.   

• Who are your current investors and how much have you raised to date? Include names if these hold sway/credibility in the industry.   

• Explain your use of funds for the raise using a visual (make sure aligned to financial model) including key hires.   

• Discuss key milestones (product, revenue, new markets) you plan to hit in the next 12-24 months.   

14. Closing slide – optional 

• Highlight key points of presentation.   

• Call to action.   

• Contact Details.

This information is a non-exhaustive summary of some of the factors which may be relevant to seeking investment in the space sector. Persons should take independent legal and professional advice before seeking any such investment.