By David Rakusan, founder of SeedForge and CFA charterholder, after seven years on the investor side of the table.
Last updated: 10 November 2026. The templates below are free to copy; every outside number is linked to the page it came from.
An investor update email is a monthly note showing investors how your company is progressing. Include a one-line summary, cash and runway for existing shareholders, three to five consistent metrics, highlights, lowlights, and one to three asks. Copy the template below, then send a shorter version to prospects who agree to receive it.
For the prospect list, start with investors who are active at your stage. SeedForge's Active Investor List counted 1,509 investors with a publicly evidenced deal (a deal announced publicly and linked to its source) in the last six months, as of 9 November 2026 (source).
What should an investor update email include?
Seven parts, in this order. Put what you most need read at the top, since a busy reader may read only the first lines.
Section | What goes in it | Why it sits there |
|---|---|---|
Subject line | Company name, "Investor update", month and year | Makes every update easy to find in an inbox |
One-line summary | What the company does, in one sentence a stranger understands | New readers at the fund see it first |
Asks | One to three specific requests, each with a name or a type of person | Keeps your requests visible to readers |
Money | Monthly net burn (cash spent running the business minus cash received from customers), cash in bank, runway | Runway tells an investor when you will raise |
Key numbers | Three to five metrics, this month against last month | The same metrics every month make the trend readable |
Highlights and lowlights | Two or three of each, one line each | Investors can help with a problem they hear about early |
Thanks | Names of people who helped last month | Shows investors their help is noticed |
At a positive monthly net burn, runway is cash in bank divided by monthly net burn. It estimates how many months the cash will last if that rate stays the same. Craig Dalton at Collaborative Fund read 1,000 investor reports in 2022. In a March 2023 account, Dalton recommends putting asks at the top, where readers are more likely to act on them, and wants runway visible at a glance. Under 12 months puts a company on Dalton's radar as "will be raising soon" and prompts more attention.
Investor update email template (copy and paste)
Paste this into a new email. Replace everything in square brackets. A data room is a collection of company documents you share with investors. Delete any line you have nothing for, except Lowlights.
Subject: [Company] investor update, [Month Year]
Hi all,
[Company] [does what, for whom, in one sentence].
ASKS
1. [Specific request: an intro to a named person or a type of person]
2. [Second request, or "No asks this month"]
MONEY
Monthly net burn: [$]
Cash in bank: [$]
Runway: [months] (cash divided by monthly net burn)
KEY NUMBERS (this month vs last month)
[Metric 1]: [value] ([change])
[Metric 2]: [value] ([change])
[Metric 3]: [value] ([change])
HIGHLIGHTS
[One line each, two or three items]
LOWLIGHTS
[One line each: what went wrong and what you are doing about it]
THANK YOU
[Name] for [what they did]
Deck and documents: [link to your current deck or data room]
Next update: [date]
[Your name]
Keep the email body under about 500 words. Anyone who wants more detail can ask, and a short email gets read on a phone between meetings.
Investor update example (filled in)
Here is the template filled in for a made-up company. Every name and number in this example is invented to show the format.
Subject: Larkspur investor update, October 2026
Hi all,
Larkspur books shift cover for small dental clinics in one tap.
ASKS
1. Intros to owners of dental groups with 5 or more clinics in Ohio or Indiana
2. A recommendation for a part-time finance lead who has worked with healthcare startups
MONEY
Monthly net burn: $48,000
Cash in bank: $560,000
Runway: 11.7 months
KEY NUMBERS (October vs September)
Paying clinics: 64 (up from 51)
Monthly recurring revenue: $19,200 (up from $15,300)
Shifts filled within 2 hours: 81% (down from 86%)
HIGHLIGHTS
Signed our first dental group: 9 clinics, live in December
Hired Priya as head of clinic success
LOWLIGHTS
Shifts filled within 2 hours dropped because two cities ran short of
hygienists. We are pausing new clinics in those cities until supply catches up.
Our Indiana pilot slipped to January after their IT review.
THANK YOU
Marcus, for the intro to the Midwest Dental Association
Deck and documents: [link]
Next update: 1 December
Maya
Notice three things. The lowlight comes with a decision attached. The asks name a type of person precisely enough that a reader can think of someone in five seconds. And runway is under 12 months, so a reader like Dalton sees a company that will be raising soon and starts paying attention now.
Which metrics should a seed startup put in an investor update?
Pick the three to five numbers you already use to run the company, and keep them the same every month. Common choices by business type:
Business type | Metrics founders often report |
|---|---|
Software sold by subscription | Monthly recurring revenue, paying customers, customers lost |
Marketplace | Total value of transactions, repeat buyers, share kept by the platform |
Consumer app | Weekly active users, share of users still active after 30 days |
Before revenue | Pilots signed, waitlist size, letters of intent (written statements of interest from potential customers) |
How do you write an investor update? 7 steps
Choose a fixed day. Put it in your calendar with a reminder two days before.
Write the one-line summary. One sentence on what the company does, for a reader who has never heard of you.
Write the asks first. One to three, each naming a person or a precise type of person.
Fill in the money lines. Monthly net burn, cash in bank, and runway in months, matching your financial model.
Report the same metrics as last month. If you change one, say so and show both for a month.
Add highlights and at least one lowlight. Each lowlight says what went wrong and what you decided to do.
Paste it into the email body and send. A reader on a phone may never open an attachment.
If runway drops under about six months and the next round is not close, read our guide to bridge rounds before you write the next update, and put the plan in it.
How often should you send an investor update?
Send investor updates monthly at pre-seed and seed, the first rounds a startup raises. Quarterly works later, once board meetings cover the detail between updates. Pick one day, such as the first Tuesday of each month, and keep it, including in the months you would rather skip.
Should you send investor updates to investors you have not raised from yet?
Yes, once they agree to receive them. A prospect update is the same monthly email sent to investors you plan to pitch in the next six to twelve months, so they watch your numbers move before you ask for a meeting. Ask first, in one line. Then send prospects a shorter version: keep the summary, key numbers, highlights and lowlights, and leave out cash, burn, runway and anything private to your shareholders, since an investor reading your runway months before a negotiation learns how much time you have. Send one email per person, or put recipients in the BCC field, which hides their addresses from one another.
To pick who gets it, start with investors who back companies like yours at your stage; the Active Investor List linked above shows them by stage and sector, each deal linked to its source. Our guide to building an investor target list shows how to narrow that to a short list.
A first note to a prospect can be this short:
Subject: [Company] monthly update, may I add you?
Hi [Name],
We met at [where] / [Who] suggested I reach out. I send a short monthly
update on [Company]: our numbers, what went well, what did not. We plan to
raise in [quarter]. Could I add you to the list? One email a month, and one
reply from you takes you off it.
[Your name]
For what to say when you later ask that investor for a meeting, see what investors read in a first email.
Why do monthly updates help you raise your next round?
Monthly updates help you raise because investors decide on a pattern, and a pitch meeting shows them a single moment. Each new fund you meet starts from zero and has to work out what is real in one hour. A year of updates is the record that answers that question: the numbers you said you would hit, the month you hit them, and what you did in the months you missed.
Chip Hazard, general partner and co-founder of Flybridge, describes a pre-seed company whose first product did not find a market. The founders kept sending an update every month through the search for a new direction, and when the new direction began to work as cash ran low, Flybridge put more money into the company. Hazard's reason: the fund "had been part of the entire journey" and had watched the team execute through the hard months.
Hazard names the opposite pattern too. "The most common failure pattern we have observed over the years," Hazard writes, is founders who stop sending updates when things become uncertain. The update you least want to write is the one your investors most need.
Updates also save time when you do raise. Paul Graham's essay How to Raise Money warns that "when you start fundraising, everything else grinds to a halt." A prospect who has read six of your updates arrives at the first call already knowing your numbers, so less of that call goes to catching up and more goes to the hard questions.
How do you give investors proof between updates?
Give investors one link where the deck and documents behind your updates live. An email update is a snapshot that sits in each reader's inbox, and a new partner at the fund, or an investor you meet next quarter, never saw the earlier ones.
SeedForge is a fundraising data room for startups that investors follow, and it gives that material one home. Your SeedForge Profile is built from your deck and documents, and you share it through one link. When you add a new version of your deck or a document, every earlier version is kept and investors see the current one. Investors who follow your startup on SeedForge get an email when it has a major update, so a prospect on your update list can follow your profile as well as read your emails. Once your profile is complete, your matched investor list unlocks with a drafted intro for each investor, a good source of names for your prospect updates. Building and sharing your profile are free: build it at seedforge.com, then paste its link into the "Deck and documents" line of the template above.
Frequently Asked Questions
What should be in a monthly investor update?
A one-line summary of the company, one to three specific asks, monthly net burn, cash in bank and runway in months, three to five key numbers compared with last month, two or three highlights and lowlights, and thanks to people who helped. Put the asks near the top, where readers act on them.
How often should startups send investor updates?
Startups should send investor updates monthly at pre-seed and seed, on the same day each month, and quarterly at later stages when board meetings cover the detail. Keep the habit in hard months too, when investors can do the most to help.
How long should an investor update email be?
Under about 500 words in the email body, readable on a phone in two minutes. Use short labelled sections and one line per item. Put the numbers in the email itself rather than an attachment, and offer more detail to anyone who replies asking for it.
What subject line should an investor update use?
Use the company name, the words "investor update", and the month and year, for example "Larkspur investor update, October 2026". Keep the same pattern every month so investors can find every past update with one inbox search.
Should you send investor updates to investors who have not invested yet?
Yes, once they agree. Sending a shorter version of your monthly update to investors you plan to pitch lets them watch your numbers over several months, so the first meeting starts with context. Ask first in one line, send one email per person or use BCC to hide recipients' addresses, and leave out cash, burn, runway and anything private to your existing shareholders.
Should you include bad news in an investor update?
Yes. Write each lowlight in one line with what you are doing about it. Problems are normal at seed stage, and sharing them early gives investors time to offer help or introductions. Founders who stop sending updates when things go badly lose that help when they need it most.