In Part 1, we covered what UA financing is, how it works, how it compares with other ways to fund growth, and how to tell whether your studio is ready. Part 2 picks up from there. Your cohorts qualify, you've been offered a financing facility, and the question now is how to put it to work.

We'll walk through deploying your first drawdown, what happens when a cohort underperforms, how far you can scale, and the mistakes to avoid along the way.

Key facts

• PvX Capital funds up to 80% of your monthly marketing spend. Your studio funds the rest from its own cash.

• You pay a fee only on the capital you draw, not on the full limit.

• Repayment is a share of the revenue from the new users acquired in a given month the capital funded; PvX's return is capped at a pre-agreed threshold.

• The financing is secured only by the cohorts it funds, not by your company or your past cohorts.

• The facility ceiling is the most you can borrow in total over the life of the facility, which is usually 24 months.

• Term sheets are issued within 24 hours, with funds within 30 days.

How should you deploy your first drawdown?

Your first drawdown should go to the channels and markets on which your limit was underwritten. Those cohorts are the foundation of the forecast, so they are where your capital is most likely to pay back as expected. Your limit is based on two things: how your past cohorts have performed and how much you plan to spend on ads. You don’t have to use it all at once. It works like a credit line: you draw on it as you need, and you pay a fee only on the capital you draw.

The financing partner doesn't fund your whole marketing budget. They co-invests alongside you, so you share the upside and the downside of each cohort. With PvX, financing covers up to 80% of monthly marketing spend; your studio funds the remainder of each month's spend from your own cash.

Before your first drawdown, your financing partner agrees the repayment terms with you and creates a forecast for how each cohort is expected to pay back. This is based on both your past cohorts and the performance of other cohorts in your category and segment. The performance of your first few cohorts then shape your future limit: every funded cohort adds to the data in your financing partner’s model. If your cohorts consistently pay back on or ahead of forecast, you may be able to access a larger facility.

What happens when a cohort underperforms?

When a cohort underperforms, your repayments shrink with it. Repayment is tied to the revenue that cohort generates, so when the cohort’s revenue drops, so does what you pay back. You don't cover the shortfall from your current cash balance. This is what it means for the financing partner to share the downside: repayment terms are tied entirely to the performance of the cohorts acquired during the financing period.

The financing partner keeps track of how each cohort is doing against its forecast. The main things they watch are:

• Actual ROAS against forecast: whether the cohort is paying back at the rate the underwriting predicted

• Retention: whether users are staying long enough for later revenue to hold up

• Early signals: day-7 (D7) and day-30 (D30) performance, which flag a cohort that’s falling behind before it’s had time to pay back in full.

You can act on the same signals. If a cohort is showing weaker revenue, the usual levers are to review and reduce, move budget to stronger channels, or pause the campaigns that are dragging performance down.

Each cohort is assessed on its own, so one weak cohort doesn't affect the others. Repeated underperformance is what needs attention: if cohorts keep missing their thresholds, the underwriting team will review whether your ROAS curves have dropped.

How far can you scale with UA financing?

Your limit can grow as you build a record of cohorts that pay back in line with or ahead of forecast. Each cohort that pays back on forecast gives the financing partner more data to model, and a longer, more consistent record supports a larger facility.

Limits aren’t reviewed on a fixed schedule. You can ask for a review up to once per calendar quarter, so a studio with strong cohorts can ask for a higher limit without waiting for a set renewal date. A review also happens if your cohorts fall below agreed performance thresholds more than once. A higher limit after a review lets you increase your monthly spend, but there are two things that cap how far it can grow: the facility ceiling, and how well your cohort performance holds up as you spend more.

The facility ceiling is the most PvX will provide over the life of your facility, which runs for 24 months by default. It counts everything you draw across that period, including capital you’ve already repaid. So it isn’t the amount you can have outstanding at any one time.

The practical limits on scaling often come before the ceiling does. As you raise spend, cost per install (CPI) tends to rise, each channel has fewer new users left to reach, and ROAS can fall as you reach wider, less engaged audiences. This is why ROAS matters so much to a financing partner: they’re looking for growth, not just revenue or profit, and holding your ROAS steady as spend rises shows your UA can scale. A larger limit only helps if the extra spend still produces cohorts that pay back, so raise budgets in steps and check each new cohort against forecast before the next increase.

What mistakes should studios avoid?

Most issues following the first drawdown come from spending ahead of the data. Three come up often:

1. Scaling spend faster than cohort performance supports, just because the capital is available. Your limit is a ceiling, not a target for what you should spend. Raising budget faster than your cohorts can pay back puts more spend at risk on each cohort that falls short.
2. Expecting a facility built on one title’s cohorts to fund a new or soft-launched title. Every game or app performs differently, so a limit underwritten on one title’s cohort history won't apply to another. Keep your drawdowns on the funded title. A new title needs to build its own cohort history before it can be financed.
3. Moving most of your budget into new markets or ad networks before they have cohort history. Cohorts perform differently by channel and market and your forecast only covers the ones on which the forecast was built. Test new markets and networks on a small share of budget first, then move financed spend there once you’ve proved performance.

UA financing works best when your spend follows your cohort data. Start with the channels and markets your limit was built on, track each cohort against its forecast, and raise budgets in steps as your cohorts pay back. Studios that do this consistently build the record that supports a larger limit.

If you’re ready to scale your UA, get in touch with the PvX team here. We’d be happy to talk through your apps or games and discuss financing options for your studio.

FAQ

How much UA financing can I get?

With PvX Capital, you can finance up to 80% of your monthly marketing spend. Your exact limit depends on how your past cohorts have performed and how much you plan to spend. The total you can draw over the facility term is capped by the facility ceiling – PvX's Funding Calculator gives an estimate.

What happens if a cohort doesn't pay back?

You don't cover the shortfall from your own cash. Your financing from PvX is secured only by the cohorts it funds, so the financing partner shares the loss if a cohort underperforms. One weak cohort doesn't change terms on your other cohorts, but repeated underperformance can lead to a review of your ROAS curves.

Can I use UA financing for a new or soft-launched game?

Not usually from an existing facility. Your limit is underwritten on the cohort history of the title it was built on, and a new or soft-launched game doesn't have that history yet. Once the new title has built a track record of its own, it can be assessed for financing separately.

How quickly can I get funded?

PvX issues term sheets within 24 hours, and funds arrive within 30 days. The main thing that affects timing is how quickly you can connect your cohort data through your MMP or a direct database connection before underwriting can begin.