It has been backed by Unilever Ventures
Swansea-based Inngot, which has developed an intellectual property (IP) identification and valuation platform used and recommended by leading banks, has secured over £1m in equity investment. The investment from Unilever Ventures will support its marketing drive to make more SMEs aware they can leverage their IP’s value to secure low-cost debt funding.
It will also be used to open up more financing channels with new partner lenders in the UK and overseas.
As part of the investment head of Unilever Ventures John Coombs joins the board of Inngot along with new chief finance officer Andrew Frome.
The new funding comes as Inngot gears up to take advantage of its success in enabling IP-based finance in the UK and to growing global interest. For the last two years it has been working with NatWest on launching and operating IP-backed loans to scale-up businesses, with the aim of making IP a more mainstream asset class.
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The NatWest High Growth IP-backed loan targets firms based in England and Wales looking to borrow amounts from £250,000 – generally with no requirement for personal guarantees. The bank has confirmed it has made over £2m in loans to date, at rates that have averaged less than 3% over base rate. Inngot’s online IP tools support the loan.
Inngot is currently working with several banks in UK, including HSBC, as well as non government organisations such as the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and national development and IP agencies, to develop lending products based on using innovative SME’s ‘bankable IP’ as collateral.
Inngot chief executive, Martin Brassell, said: “Innovation was needed to harness tangible assets to finance the industrial age. It’s the same story in the information age – except that now, the most valuable assets are intangible.
“We are delighted to have secured this substantial vote of confidence in a challenging investment market, which will support our drive to raise awareness of IP finance and how we can help more growth businesses access it.”
Inngot was founded in 2007 by Mr Brassell and finance law expert Professor Iwan Davies, previously Vice-Chancellor of Bangor University. Inngot’s suite of accessible and affordable online tools enable companies to identify their IP assets, derive an indicative value for them, and communicate this information in a standardised report which is increasingly being used by banks and other lenders as validation in the lending process.
It also has an office in Abingdon.
