Arx vs Runway
Runway runs forecast at scale.
Arx runs the raise.
Runway is a financial-planning platform built on your connected actuals — made for finance teams with history behind them. Arx is built for the early stage: a driver-based forecast you can actually fill in, plus nine more tools that get the round closed.
Financial planning platform
A
ARX
Fundraising operating system
ALL YOUR TOOLS IN ONE WORKSPACE
A forecast is one tool.
Arx is the entire workspace.
Runway is a powerful financial-planning platform, but it ends here. Arx gives you the forecast plus nine more: an investor CRM, warm intros, deck analytics, a live data room, updates, bookings, briefs and an AI across all of it. The model isn’t a standalone product you maintain; it’s one tile in the workspace that runs your raise.
Runway
A financial-planning platform.
A modern planning tool that connects to your accounting, payroll and billing to model off real actuals — scenarios, headcount plans, board reporting and variance. Powerful once you have history and a finance function. Early on, you don’t yet have the actuals it’s built around, and the CRM, deck, data room and updates live somewhere else.
Financial planning · for finance teams
Arx
A fundraising operating system.
A driver-based forecast made for the early stage — no historical data required — plus an investor CRM, warm intros, deck analytics, a live data room, updates and briefs, with an AI across all of it. Built for the raise, specifically for early-stage founders.
Built for the raise
★ Where Arx pulls ahead · The forecast
A model built from
what you actually know.
You don’t have years of history yet — and you don’t need them. Arx forecasts from the drivers an early-stage founder actually knows: ACV, your pricing model, close rate, churn, current pipeline. Change a driver and the whole model updates instantly. Or just ask Arx to adjust them for you.
- Drivers, not historicals Start from ACV, pricing, close rate, churn, pipeline — the numbers you actually know.
- Updates as you typeMove a driver and revenue, burn and runway recompute on the spot — no spreadsheet wiring.
- Ask Arx to tune it “Grow marketing budget 20% for year 2” — Arx adjusts the drivers for you and previews the impact before you keep it.
Forecast · Seed planDrivers
Average contract value (ACV)$18,000
Close rate22%
Monthly churn1.8%
New pipeline / month$640k
ARR · year 1
$1.4M
Runway
19 mo
Burn / mo
$92k
Ask Arx“Grow S&M 20% next year” — drivers adjust, the model recomputes.
Where they diverge
Feature by feature, by job.
Arx runs the entire early-stage fundraise, with a driver-based forecast at its core. Runway is a deep financial-planning platform for finance teams modeling off real actuals — powerful, but built for a later stage and a different job.
Capability
Arx
Runway
Fundraising workflow
Investor CRM & pipelineStages, check sizes, conversation history
✓ Built in
✕ Not offered
Warm-intro pathsMap advisors & investors to each fund
✓ Built in
✕ Not offered
Pitch deck analyticsPer-slide dwell, viewer-level tracking
✓ Per-slide heatmap
✕ Not offered
Investor data roomShare diligence materials with investors
✓ Built in
✕ Not offered
Investor updatesComposed, sent from your own domain
✓ Built in
✕ Not offered
Meeting bookings & briefsInvestor scheduling with prep briefs
✓ Built in
✕ Not offered
The forecast
Built for the early stageWorks with no actuals or finance hire
✓ Pre-seed & seed
✕ Needs actuals
Driver-based modelingBuild the model from drivers, not cells
✓ Fundraise drivers
✓ Operating drivers
Fundraise-tuned driversACV, close rate, pipeline — per business model
✓ 50+ built in
✕ Not the focus
VC benchmark scoringMagic number, CAC payback, NRR vs standards
✓ Built in
✕ Not offered
Remediation guidanceHow to fix a missed benchmark
✓ Built in
✕ Not offered
ScenariosBear, base, bull on one chart
✓ Built in
✓ Built in
Feeds the fundraise workspaceInto the data room, deck pro forma & cap table
✓ Built in
✕ Standalone FP&A
Financial planning platform
Live actuals (750+ integrations)Accounting, HRIS, CRM, billing — synced
✕ Not offered Series A+
✓ Built in
Headcount & payroll planningHiring plans tied to the model
✕ Basic Series A+
✓ Built in
Plan vs actuals (variance)Track the model against reality
✕ Not offered Series A+
✓ Built in
Board reporting & dashboardsCustom finance dashboards
✕ Fundraising views
✓ Built in
Multi-entity consolidationRoll up subsidiaries & currencies
✕ Not offered Series A+
✓ Built in
Pricing & onboarding
Pricing modelWhat you actually pay
✓ Flat $99/mo, unlimited seats
$500+/mo, sales-led
OnboardingSetup & time to first value
✓ Guided, minutes
Implementation + data hookup
★ Where Arx pulls ahead · Benchmarks
Scored against
the standards VCs use.
A number on its own means nothing in a pitch. Arx scores your metrics against the industry benchmarks, flags exactly where you fall short, and tells you what to do to close the gap — or what to be ready to explain when a partner asks.
- Where you standNet retention, CAC payback, gross margin and burn multiple, measured against industry standards.
- What to fixBelow the median? Arx names the lever to pull to get there.
- Or how to explain itSome metrics can be unique to your venture. Arx points out the outliers, so you’re ready when the partner asks about them.
Benchmarks · Seed SaaSYour metrics
Net revenue retention
You 104% · median 110%
Below
Gross margin
You 78% · median 75%
On track
CAC payback
You 17 mo · golden 12 mo
Flag
Burn multiple
You 1.4x · median 1.5x
On track
CAC payback is 5 months over the bar. Arx suggests trimming blended CAC or lifting ACV — or prep the expansion story before a partner asks.
★ Where Arx pulls ahead · Connected
The model lives
where investors look.
In Runway the model sits inside a finance tool. In Arx the forecast streams straight into the data room and updates automatically. The version a partner sees on Tuesday is the one you changed on Monday.
- Linked, not exportedThe room serves the latest model — no stale PDF to re-upload.
- Per-data room scopedCreate multiple forecasts, and assign them to different data rooms.
- Tracked per viewerSee who opened the forecast, and for how long.
Diligence roomNorthbeam Capital
14 VIEWS · 14m AGO
📂 Financials
XL
Financial forecast ● LINKEDSynced from Forecast · v6 · base scenario
22m ago
28
···
PDF
Cap table — export ● LINKEDSynced from Cap Table · post-money $14.0M
1h ago
17
···
📂 The pitch
PDF
Pitch deck — current ● LINKEDSynced from Deck · v14 · always-latest
11m ago
142
···
URL
Public roadmap (Linear) Live link · revoked on close
5d ago
9
···
The honest part
Runway is for scaling.
Arx is for early-stage finance.
Once you have real actuals, a finance hire and a board that wants monthly variance, Runway is a strong planning platform — and you should adopt it then.
But the early-stage raise is a different job. You don’t have the history Runway models off, your numbers are always compared against the industry benchmarks, and your forecast has to live in your data room. That’s what Arx is designed to do, for one flat price.
Runway
$500+/mo
Sales-led annual contracts aimed at funded finance teams — and the CRM, deck, data room, updates and briefs aren’t part of it.
Arx
$99/mo
Flat, unlimited seats. The forecast plus nine other tools you’d otherwise buy separately.
The bottom line
Run the raise in Arx.
Runway can wait.
Before you have years of actuals and a finance team, your forecast comes from drivers, your investors compare benchmarks — and your model has to live where the VCs can see it. Arx does that, and runs the rest of the raise, for $99/mo. Runway is there once you’ve scaled into it.
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