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Do investors actually say what LTV to CAC they want?
Almost never in public. In 171 public statements by Indian investors on D2C between 2024 and 2026, not one named a CAC, ROAS or LTV to CAC threshold.
The benchmarks founders keep hearing, such as LTV to CAC of 3 to 1, CAC payback within six months or 30% repeat, came from advisors, guides and journalists in our set. That doesn't make them wrong. It means they aren't what investors are on record saying.
What we counted
We built a dataset of 245 public statements about Indian D2C, published between January 2024 and October 2026. Each is a verbatim quote or a close paraphrase, with the speaker, their role and a source link. Of the 245, 171 come from investors (VCs, angels, family offices, lenders and acquirers). The other 74 come from analysts, advisors, founders and journalists. Every claim on this page about investors uses only those 171.
The findings
Numeric thresholds come from outside investing. We found 12 operating thresholds in the set. Ten came from non-investors, including repeat above 30%, LTV to CAC of 3 to 1, ROAS of 3 to 5 times and CAC payback inside six months. Two came from investors, and neither was about acquisition cost.
"D2C brands generally need 50–70% gross margins to sustain multiple channels"
When investors do talk about metrics, it's repeat purchase and burn. Profitability, burn and capital efficiency came up in 9 investor statements, and repeat purchase in 7. CAC came up in none.
"cash-burn first will never be profitable"
What investors say kills a deal depends on who writes the cheque. VCs flag lack of differentiation. All 6 investor statements in our set about "me-too" products or dupes came from VCs, and none from angels or family offices.
"Dupes are a big red flag for us"
Family offices flag governance. Three of the five investor statements about governance and cap tables came from family offices.
"governance failures, not the companies that made wrong strategic calls"
"Tax and legal diligence kill rounds" is mostly an advisor claim. Seven of the 8 statements saying this came from advisory firms, which sell diligence services. One came from an investor-tagged source, and even that was an advisory platform's blog.
The limits of this count
- Public statements aren't decisions. Investors talk to the press for their own reasons, and what they say may not match how they vote in partnership meetings.
- A few voices carry a lot of it. The 10 most-quoted investors account for 36% of the investor statements.
- Some of the sorting is ours. Metric counts use keyword matching, and the deal-breaker groups are our own coding.
- The mix shifted over time. Investors made 97% of the 2024 statements but only 53% of the 2026 ones, so changes over time mostly reflect who got quoted.
What we read into it
This part is our view. The CAC and payback thresholds probably do shape investor judgement in private. But a founder who arrives quoting "3 to 1" is quoting a blog, not a fund. What investors say on the record is simpler. They want proof that customers come back, that each order makes money, and that the money raised won't go to covering losses. We build the diagnosis around those three.
We help founders prepare for that conversation and then raise. If we ran your venture diagnostics, the raise starts after a one-quarter cooling-off period. If not, we start right after our own investability review.
Questions
FAQ
What LTV to CAC ratio do Indian VCs expect?
None of the 171 investor statements in our 2024 to 2026 set named one. The common 3 to 1 figure came from an advisor guide.
What metrics do investors mention most?
Profitability and burn (9 statements) and repeat purchase (7).
Do family offices look at different things than VCs?
On the record, yes. Family offices talk about governance and risk, and VCs talk about differentiation.
Where can I see the quotes?
Every quote on this page links to its source. The full dataset is Avan's own working file.