Inngot wins UK IPO contract to research SME IP revaluations

Inngot®, the online platform for intellectual property and intangible asset (IP) identification and valuation, is delivering a series of IP revaluations for SMEs as part of a major project launched by the UK’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO). The IPO project is designed to inform and influence banks’ lending practices in respect of IP as collateral and determine how the value of IP assets changes over time and why.

Last year, the IPO collaborated with the British Business Bank to publish the report ‘Using Intellectual Property to Access Growth Funding’ which sets out the case for action.

Inngot CEO Martin Brassell says: “The difficulties financial institutions have in dealing with intangibles like IP are commonly blamed on the lack of transparent markets on which they can be traded, making price and value harder to substantiate. However, even if these markets existed, most companies would not choose to sell their IP because it represents the core of their business; they cannot function without it. So it is vital to build confidence in the ‘in-use’ value of IP.”

This latest UK IPO project is one of a series of confidence-building steps aimed at creating conditions supporting the wider use of IP to unlock much-needed finance for small high-growth companies.

Inngot was one of three companies chosen by the UK IPO to deliver IP revaluations following a robust tender process.

Inngot, which is headquartered in Swansea, has been offering its market-leading suite of easily accessible and cost-effective online tools for IP and intangible asset identification and valuation, specifically targeted at the needs of SMEs, since 2010.

Its Sollomon® and Sollomon2 valuation tools are now being used to value IP and intangible assets by banks and lenders including Lombard and HSBC.

Inngot recently won a £250,000 grant from Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency. That grant is to fund ground-breaking research into the recoverable value of IP and other intangible assets. The one-year project will secure data that will build confidence in the market, and power Inngot’s next generation of tools to support lender credit decisions.