Round Ready Academy — Lesson 10 of 11
Most founders, faced with a capital need, think in one dimension: equity. The options above the equity line — venture debt, revenue-based financing, IP-backed lending — are either unfamiliar or assumed to be out of reach for businesses at £1M to £10M ARR.
That assumption is increasingly out of date. UK IP-backed lending has expanded sharply since 2023. NatWest's flagship programme grew from £5M in 2024 to over £27M by early 2026, and HSBC and RBS have followed with their own growth-lending propositions anchored on intellectual property as collateral. For founders with the right asset base, IP-backed lending is a live, non-dilutive option.
This lesson covers: what qualifies as collateral, how the UK lenders are structuring the offer, how Opagio identifies qualifying assets, and worked examples.
IP-backed lending is not a substitute for equity. It is a complement to it. The right framing is: how much of the next £3M to £10M of capital can be non-dilutive? For companies with the right asset base, the answer is often a meaningful share — and every pound that is non-dilutive is a pound of dilution not taken.
What the UK Market Actually Looks Like
The UK IP-backed lending market in 2024-2026 is characterised by three lenders writing the bulk of identifiable cheques: NatWest (the most public programme, with a published case study library), HSBC (growth lending with IP-anchored facilities), and RBS (complementary programme at group level). A set of specialist non-bank lenders writes smaller facilities alongside.
Facility sizes range from around £1M to £10M for scale-up businesses, with larger facilities available for established companies with stronger IP portfolios. Terms are typically 3-5 years, fully amortising, with interest rates priced at a premium to secured commercial lending.
What Qualifies as Collateral
Not every intangible asset qualifies as IP-backed lending collateral. Lenders work with a tighter definition than the Opagio 12 full framework. Three categories dominate:
Qualifying Collateral — Three Categories
| Category | What it includes | What it typically excludes |
|---|---|---|
| Registered IP | Granted patents, registered trademarks with UK/EU coverage, registered designs | Pending applications (generally insufficient alone), unregistered trademarks |
| Copyright and proprietary content | Documented software codebases with clear IP ownership, proprietary datasets with access and rights evidence, copyright-protected creative works | Third-party-licensed content, open-source-dependent codebases without proprietary layering |