R&D tax credits are one of the most underutilised tools in a founder's financial toolkit. In New Zealand, Australia, the UK, and the US, governments offer meaningful cash returns for qualifying R&D expenditure. Yet most founders either don't claim them, or don't factor them into their financial projections.
That's a mistake — especially when you're raising capital.
The runway equation
Every fundraise comes down to runway. How long can you operate before you need more money? The longer your runway, the more leverage you have in negotiations. R&D credits can extend that runway by months, which changes the calculus on dilution, valuation, and timing.
Consider a startup spending $800K per year on qualifying R&D in New Zealand. The RDTI credit returns 15% of that — $120K per year. Over an 18-month period between rounds, that's $180K of non-dilutive funding. For a seed-stage company, that's significant.
Modelling it correctly
The challenge isn't knowing R&D credits exist. It's modelling them accurately. Different jurisdictions have different rules, different timing, and different treatment. New Zealand's RDTI is an annual refundable credit. Australia's R&DTI has different rates for small vs. large companies. The US Section 41 credit has its own qualifying criteria and offset rules.
If your model doesn't account for these differences, you're either overstating or understating your position. Both are problems.
The Radley approach
When you connect Radley Tax and Radley Finance, your R&D credit estimates flow directly into your financial model. The timing, jurisdiction-specific rules, and cash flow impact are all handled automatically. You don't need to be a tax expert to get this right — the system encodes the expertise for you.
The result is a model that reflects reality: non-dilutive funding that's already available to you, built into your projections where it belongs.
