The Revenue Run Rate (also run rate — one word) is the annualized revenue of a company if you were to extrapolate the current revenue over a year. It refers to the financial performance of a company based on using current financial information as a predictor of future performance. The run rate functions as an extrapolation of current financial performance and is based on the assumption that current conditions will continue. Run rates are useful for new business or business units within a company that have only had a short period of revenue generation opportunity. This figure allows managers, venture capitalists and investors to measure the annualized revenue.

The run rate refers to the financial performance of a company based on using current financial information as a predictor of future performance. The run rate functions as an extrapolation of current financial performance and assumes that current conditions will continue.

The run rate can also refer to the average annual dilution from company stock option grants over the most recent three-year period recorded in the annual report.

In the context of extrapolating future performance, the run rate takes current performance information and extends it over a longer period. For example, if a company has revenues of $100 million in its latest quarter, the CEO might infer that, based on the latest quarter, the company is operating at a $400 million run rate. When the data is used to create a yearly projection for potential performance, the process is referred to as annualizing.