Supporting the Innovators

Intellectual Property-Backed lending (IP) is for high growth businesses who own few tangible assets, but can be rich in IP and intangible assets. These businesses can find it difficult to use their assets as collateral to secure growth funding, especially when compared with firms holding more conventional assets. This has led to a large growth funding gap for fast-growing, asset light businesses which is estimated to be as much as £15 billion annually.

In response, NatWest evolved its high growth lending offer to support eligible IP-rich businesses to unlock their full potential. While the bank will always initially assess loan applications to establish whether the customer meets the criteria for standard lending options, if the bank cannot meet a high growth business’ borrowing needs through conventional security criteria, it will consider whether it could raise funding by using their qualifying IP assets as collateral. The bank will use valuations provided by the specialist IP evaluation company Inngot to identify and evaluate relevant assets which could be taken as security for loans.

Since the industrial revolution, the physical assets companies own – like buildings, machinery, and vehicles – have traditionally been considered their main value drivers.

However, intellectual property and other intangible assets are also now becoming major contributors to business success and value, particularly for high-growth technology businesses or start-ups, which tend to have fewer traditional tangible assets.

The lies of patents, trademarks, copyright, designs, trade secrets and know-how are unique assets, and therefore in short supply. But because they are not physical, they are also highly scalable – just what is needed in an increasingly digital economy.

Learn more about NatWest IP-backed lending.