Metis Partners was asked to undertake an IP valuation of a pre-revenue renewable energy technology company on behalf of its investor, a Government Appointed Business Support Agency.
The investor engaged Metis Partners to perform a mini–IP Audit to identify the IP assets which underpinned the Company’s competitive advantage, and to report on any IP risks which could undermine future value. In addition, we were asked to advise the Client on the status of the Company’s patent portfolio and conducted market analysis to contextualize the Company’s IP portfolio and increase the Client’s transparency over the IP. We subsequently provided an IP valuation to support the Company’s value proposition.
Our Metisology® approach included on-site day with management and key personnel. We discovered that, despite believing it had a robust IP strategy, the Company had significant gaps in its IP management strategy which exposed its critical IP rights to a substantial amount of risk, particularly in relation to trade secret protection.
We conducted market analysis on the level of competition and patent profiling within the renewable energy sector. We also performed a high-level patent portfolio analysis, including citation analysis and competitor landscaping, to ascertain the level of patenting activity in and around the Company’s unique technology.
We performed IP valuations on two bases, first appraising the cost to reproduce the technology on a fair value basis, and then on a distressed basis to assess the likely recoverable value from the IP assets in the event of an insolvency or accelerated M&A scenario, to inform our Client on the estimated ‘downside’ value of the IP, which was critical to its investment decision.
Our IP Audit identified IP assets which the Company had overlooked and undervalued, as well as significant gaps in its management of IP, including a lack of trade secrets policy to protect the most unique and innovative aspects of its technology.
We provided the Company with a series of recommendations designed to improve their IP management strategy and provided investors with comfort as to the protection of critical IP assets underpinning the Company’s USP, which facilitated the successful investment.
The IP valuation of the Company’s IP, both as a going concern and in a distressed scenario, provided our Client with insight on the Company’s value proposition and salability of IP assets, should the Company’s commercialization plan fail.
IP Assets Valued – Patents, Trade Secrets, Key Organizational Knowledge, Know-How
