Even when a business is losing money, it's possible for shareholders to make money if they buy a good business at the right price. For example, although software-as-a-service business Salesforce.com lost money for years while it grew recurring revenue, if you held shares since 2005, you'd have done very well indeed. Nonetheless, only a fool would ignore the risk that a loss making company burns through its cash too quickly.

So should Ilika (LON:IKA) shareholders be worried about its cash burn? In this report, we will consider the company's annual negative free cash flow, henceforth referring to it as the 'cash burn'. Let's start with an examination of the business' cash, relative to its cash burn.

See our latest analysis for Ilika

How Long Is Ilika's Cash Runway?

A cash runway is defined as the length of time it would take a company to run out of money if it kept spending at its current rate of cash burn. When Ilika last reported its October 2023 balance sheet in January 2024, it had zero debt and cash worth UK￡13m. Importantly, its cash burn was UK￡5.5m over the trailing twelve months. So it had a cash runway of about 2.4 years from October 2023. That's decent, giving the company a couple years to develop its business. Depicted below, you can see how its cash holdings have changed over time.

How Is Ilika's Cash Burn Changing Over Time?

Although Ilika had revenue of UK￡1.8m in the last twelve months, its operating revenue was only UK￡40k in that time period. We don't think that's enough operating revenue for us to understand too much from revenue growth rates, since the company is growing off a low base. So we'll focus on the cash burn, today. While it hardly paints a picture of imminent growth, the fact that it has reduced its cash burn by 38% over the last year suggests some degree of prudence. While the past is always worth studying, it is the future that matters most of all. For that reason, it makes a lot of sense to take a look at our analyst forecasts for the company.

How Easily Can Ilika Raise Cash?

Even though it has reduced its cash burn recently, shareholders should still consider how easy it would be for Ilika to raise more cash in the future. Companies can raise capital through either debt or equity. One of the main advantages held by publicly listed companies is that they can sell shares to investors to raise cash and fund growth. By looking at a company's cash burn relative to its market capitalisation, we gain insight on how much shareholders would be diluted if the company needed to raise enough cash to cover another year's cash burn.