There's no doubt that money can be made by owning shares of unprofitable businesses. For example, biotech and mining exploration companies often lose money for years before finding success with a new treatment or mineral discovery. But while the successes are well known, investors should not ignore the very many unprofitable companies that simply burn through all their cash and collapse.

So, the natural question for DroneShield (ASX:DRO) shareholders is whether they should be concerned by its rate of cash burn. In this report, we will consider the company's annual negative free cash flow, henceforth referring to it as the 'cash burn'. First, we'll determine its cash runway by comparing its cash burn with its cash reserves.

See our latest analysis for DroneShield

When Might DroneShield Run Out Of Money?

A company's cash runway is the amount of time it would take to burn through its cash reserves at its current cash burn rate. DroneShield has such a small amount of debt that we'll set it aside, and focus on the AU$9.5m in cash it held at December 2021. Looking at the last year, the company burnt through AU$6.8m. Therefore, from December 2021 it had roughly 17 months of cash runway. That's not too bad, but it's fair to say the end of the cash runway is in sight, unless cash burn reduces drastically. You can see how its cash balance has changed over time in the image below.

How Well Is DroneShield Growing?

Some investors might find it troubling that DroneShield is actually increasing its cash burn, which is up 25% in the last year. Having said that, it's revenue is up a very solid 91% in the last year, so there's plenty of reason to believe in the growth story. The company needs to keep up that growth, if it is to really please shareholders. We think it is growing rather well, upon reflection. Of course, we've only taken a quick look at the stock's growth metrics, here. You can take a look at how DroneShield is growing revenue over time by checking this visualization of past revenue growth.

How Easily Can DroneShield Raise Cash?

DroneShield seems to be in a fairly good position, in terms of cash burn, but we still think it's worthwhile considering how easily it could raise more money if it wanted to. Generally speaking, a listed business can raise new cash through issuing shares or taking on debt. Many companies end up issuing new shares to fund future growth. We can compare a company's cash burn to its market capitalisation to get a sense for how many new shares a company would have to issue to fund one year's operations.