Pitch decks for D2C brands raising funding: what investors check first

Fibvo editorial · 1 January 2025 · 5 min read

D2C investors have seen enough revenue-growth-at-any-cost stories to look past a growth chart straight to the numbers underneath it: contribution margin after ad spend, repeat purchase rate, and how customer acquisition cost has trended over recent quarters, not just an average.

The numbers that matter most

• Contribution margin per order after product cost, shipping and ad spend.
• Repeat purchase rate and time to second purchase.
• CAC trend over the last several quarters, not a single blended average.
• Cohort retention, showing whether early customers keep buying months later.

Presenting weak spots honestly

An investor evaluating D2C brands has seen the common problems before — thin margins masked by growth, rising CAC hidden in a blended number, low repeat rates. Addressing a known weakness directly, with a credible plan to improve it, reads better than a deck that avoids the topic and gets caught in diligence anyway.

A D2C investor will find your real contribution margin during diligence regardless — showing it yourself, with a plan, builds more trust than hiding it.

Design that supports the numbers, not distracts from them

Clean, uncluttered charts with clearly labelled axes matter more than decorative slide design in a D2C fundraising deck. Investors are reading for the underlying unit economics — make those numbers easy to find and verify.

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Written by Fibvo — Bengaluru and Erode, India — working with clients in other time zones. Questions, or think we have it wrong? Tell us.