What are some examples of ask slides that can be included in a pitch deck?

An ask slide is the closing slide in a pitch deck where founders explicitly state what they are requesting from investors — typically a specific funding amount, the intended use of those funds, and the milestone that capital will unlock. Strong ask slides are direct, numeric, and tied to a clear business outcome. Rather than vaguely requesting ‘investment to grow the business,’ an effective ask slide tells an investor precisely how much you need, how it will be allocated across categories like product, hiring, and marketing, and what measurable goal — such as reaching 10,000 paying customers or launching in three new markets — the money is designed to achieve within a defined timeframe.

Many founders make the mistake of treating the ask slide as an afterthought, but investors often flip to it first to calibrate whether a deal fits their thesis before reading the rest of the deck. The ask slide sets expectations for the round structure, including whether it is a SAFE, a convertible note, or a priced equity round, and at what valuation cap or pre-money valuation. Including these specifics removes ambiguity and signals that the founding team has done financial modeling and understands their own capital requirements. A slide that simply says ‘raising $2M’ without allocation or milestones leaves too many questions open and can make an experienced investor skeptical of the team’s planning rigor.

There are several distinct types of ask slides depending on your company stage and what you are pitching for. A seed-stage startup raising its first institutional round will have a very different ask slide than a Series B company or a startup seeking a strategic partnership rather than equity capital. Some ask slides focus entirely on the financial raise, while others are designed for accelerator applications, grant proposals, or partnership pitches and therefore highlight resources, mentorship, or introductions rather than a dollar amount. Understanding which type of ask fits your audience is as important as the content itself — a grant ask slide, for example, should tie the funding directly to a specific deliverable or research outcome rather than to equity or ownership dilution.

• A seed funding ask slide might request $1.5M on a SAFE with a $8M valuation cap, allocating 50% to engineering hires, 30% to paid acquisition testing, and 20% to operational runway through Q3 of the following year.
• A Series A ask slide could specify a $6M priced round at a $24M pre-money valuation, with proceeds targeting two key hires in sales leadership and a geographic expansion into the Canadian market within 18 months.
• A grant or non-dilutive funding ask slide would detail exactly how a $250,000 government innovation grant will fund a specific research phase, including deliverables like a working prototype by month nine and a published pilot study by month fourteen.
• A strategic partnership ask slide skips dollar amounts entirely and instead requests co-marketing access to a partner’s existing user base, a six-month pilot agreement, and shared data reporting infrastructure to validate the integration.
• A revenue-based financing ask slide outlines a $500,000 capital advance with a projected 8% revenue share repayment structure, supported by three months of consistent monthly recurring revenue data to show repayment capacity.
• An accelerator application ask slide focuses on what the program offers — $120,000 in funding, office space, and three specific mentor introductions in enterprise sales — and explains exactly what the team will build or prove during the cohort period.
• A bridge round ask slide addresses an existing investor base and requests $800,000 to extend runway by nine months, directly referencing a named upcoming milestone like a signed enterprise contract that will trigger the next institutional raise.

When building your own ask slide, start by anchoring the number to your financial model rather than picking a round size based on what sounds credible. Map each dollar to a hiring plan or spend category and connect those expenditures to a specific metric you will hit, such as reaching $1M ARR or reducing churn below 3%. Present this on a single, uncluttered slide — ideally with three columns showing amount, allocation, and milestone. Keep in mind that an ask slide is less relevant when you are pitching to a non-investor audience, such as a customer or a press outlet, and should be swapped for a different closing slide tailored to that context.