The 24-month runway rule: what replaced the £50k

The single most persistent piece of misinformation about the UK Innovator Founder Visa is the claim that "there is no capital requirement any more." That claim references the April 2023 removal of the £50,000 minimum investment threshold. What it misses is what replaced it, and the replacement is strictly more demanding than the rule it succeeded.

Scott Horton at Envestors makes the new standard unambiguous:

Richard Harrison at Innovator International expresses the same principle with different framing:

The old rule was a flat number. The new rule is a calculated number, and the calculation is specific to your business.

What the rule actually says

Envestors requires verification of access to at least 24 months of runway. That runway has to cover:

• Relocation and setup — flights to the UK, company formation, visa legal fees, Envestors' endorsement fees.
• Operating costs — staff, rent, professional services, software, marketing. Everything on the P&L until revenue offsets burn.
• Professional services — accountants, lawyers, IP specialists, compliance advisors where relevant.
• Founder livability — "how are you going to actually live in the UK if you have no capital?" The rule doesn't formally ringfence personal living expenses, but the assessor is looking at the full picture.

Innovator International's version is tied to break-even rather than a fixed 24-month window:

• Enough funding to reach break-even per the applicant's own cash-flow forecast.
• Plus a 20% Prince2-style contingency on top. See the 20% Prince2 contingency.

In practice, an 18-month break-even plan at Innovator International plus 20% contingency is close to Envestors' 24-month floor. The two bodies disagree on the framing but converge on the number.

What counts as runway

Three hard constraints apply to the money you use to evidence runway:

Liquid cash. Harrison is direct:

House equity doesn't count. Lines of credit don't count. "Committed" investor interest without a signed agreement doesn't count. The money has to be in a bank account, or legally bound to become so on a known date.

Verifiable. You have to prove access. Bank statements, signed investment agreements backed by fund statements of the investing party, or documented business revenue with historical consistency.

Yours to deploy. Cash that's owned by the business is valid. Cash that's owned by the founder and committed to the business is valid. Cash that's owned by a parent or relative and "available if needed" is not.

What does count

• Personal savings — the simplest path. Bank statements from the founder's account.
• Investment you've already raised — a signed investment agreement with the investor, plus fund statements from the investor proving they have the money. Not a term sheet. Not a promised commitment. A signed deal with evidence of capital.
• Existing business revenue — if you're running a business that generates revenue, the revenue stream can be built into the cash-flow forecast as income the UK business will receive. Harrison is specific:

What doesn't count

• "I'll raise when I get to the UK" — Harrison rejects this directly.
• Crowdfunding pledges that haven't closed — pledges, not cash.
• Family money that's informal — loan agreements, formal gifts, properly documented and in the bank.
• Expected grants — if the grant hasn't been awarded in writing, it isn't runway.
• House equity — "We're planning to remortgage" is not runway.

Building a defensible runway number

The worst way to approach this is to pick a round number and work backwards. The assessor will see the round number immediately, and the forecast underlying it will fail the logical-underpinning test. Horton:

Build the runway bottom-up. A worked approach:

Step 1 — list every cost line

• Personnel — your salary (UK living requires this), co-founder salary if applicable, first hires. Use realistic UK market rates, not the founder's home-country rates.
• Premises — office or co-working. In London, budget £400–800 per desk per month.
• Professional services — accountant £150–300/month, legal as needed, visa and endorsement fees upfront, IP filings if relevant.
• Software and tools — realistic, not minimal.
• Marketing and customer acquisition — the cost of finding your first ten customers.
• Cost of goods or service delivery — the variable costs of actually selling the thing.

Step 2 — model the revenue curve honestly

Most founders over-project month-3 to month-12 revenue by 2-5x what actually happens. Build a version of the plan where revenue starts later and grows slower than you expect. If the plan doesn't survive that stress test, it isn't ready for submission.

Step 3 — find the break-even month

The month when monthly revenue exceeds monthly operating costs is break-even. If your forecast says break-even at month 14, that's when recurring burn stops — but you still need capital for the months after, because you're paying off the accumulated deficit and growing.

Step 4 — compound the cumulative burn

Add up monthly burn from month 1 until revenue matches and surpasses burn. That number — plus a contingency — is the minimum runway required.

Step 5 — add the contingency

Innovator International formalises 20% as a Prince2 standard. Even at Envestors, 10–20% contingency on top of a rigorous forecast is expected, not optional.

If your rigorous forecast says you need £110k to reach break-even with a 20% contingency, and you have £115k evidenced in the bank, you pass. If you have £90k, you fail — regardless of how good the idea is.

Why this test is the single most commonly failed test

Many otherwise-strong applicants fail the runway test, and they fail it for predictable reasons:

• They calculated a round-number capital ask (£50k, £100k) rather than computing from the forecast.
• They double-counted investor interest that hadn't closed.
• They underestimated UK operating costs (particularly salaries and London rent).
• They were advised that the "£50k is no longer required" line meant the rule was gone.

See ghost-written ideas and buzzword traps for how this fits the broader pattern of weak application preparation.

What happens if you're close to the line

If your calculated runway is £120k and you have £118k verifiable, the assessor's job is not to round up. The job is to assess whether the evidence matches the forecast. Close-to-the-line applicants sometimes get through, sometimes don't — the question is whether the remaining gap is within the contingency or beyond it.

The safer path is overfunding the contingency. If your forecast says £110k runway required, evidence £130k. You've now accounted for the 20% Prince2 contingency and left headroom for the assessor's scepticism.

Cross-body note

Envestors frames the rule as 24 months of runway; Innovator International frames it as break-even plus contingency. The underlying test is the same: can this business actually survive to become self-sustaining, with the capital the applicant has demonstrably in hand?

For a full comparison, see the three endorsing bodies compared.

External context

The Home Office Innovator Founder Visa guidance confirms that the fixed £50,000 investment threshold was removed when the visa rules were updated. Endorsement bodies now determine appropriate funding levels case-by-case based on each business plan's actual requirements.

Key takeaways

• The £50k threshold is gone. It has been replaced by a funding requirement matched to your own cash-flow forecast.
• Envestors requires 24 months of verified runway. Innovator International requires break-even plus 20% Prince2 contingency.
• Funding must be liquid cash, verifiable via bank statement or signed agreement with fund evidence.
• "I'll raise when I arrive" is not runway. Promised investment without a signed deal is not runway.
• Build the number bottom-up from a conservative forecast. Round numbers signal weak preparation.

• runway
• funding
• viability
• envestors
• break-even