The Opagio Adviser Partnership
A referral partnership that lets accountants, brokers and corporate-finance advisers add IP-backed lending to their offering — without becoming IP valuers or losing the client relationship.
Why advisers partner with Opagio
Your asset-light clients are underserved by conventional lending. A software firm, a life-sciences business or an R&D-heavy manufacturer can be growing fast and generating cash, yet still fail a secured-lending conversation because the value sits in code, patents, data and brand rather than property or plant. Since NatWest launched the first UK high-street IP-backed loan in January 2024, that value has become fundable — but only when it is presented in the shape a credit committee reads.
Most advisers do not want to become IP valuers to capture that opportunity, and they should not have to. The Opagio adviser partnership is designed around a simple division of labour: you keep the client relationship and the commercial judgement; Opagio does the specialist assembly — the valuation, the evidence, the collateral read — that makes an introduction lender-ready.
Key takeaway: An IP finance adviser partnership is not an outsourcing of your client. It is a way to add a fundable new advisory line while you remain the trusted point of contact and capture the fee.
How the referral flow works
The partnership follows a clear sequence. You identify the opportunity and make the introduction; Opagio produces the pack; you and the client take it to a lender or valuer. At no point does the client stop being yours.
- You qualify. Spot the asset-light, cash-generative client whose real worth is intangible — and sense-check basic fit against IP loan eligibility.
- You introduce. Bring the client to Opagio with your commercial context. You stay in the room; the engagement runs under your relationship.
- Opagio assembles. The platform builds the collateral-and-evidence pack — register, valuation, graded evidence, collateral-suitability read, realisation view and financials.
- You introduce to the lender. You and the client take a pack that is already in a credit committee's format to the right lender, using the lender's guide to anticipate how it will be graded.
Key takeaway: You own both ends of the journey — qualification and the lender introduction. Opagio owns only the specialist middle, so the relationship and the fee stay with you.
Who this partnership suits
| Adviser type | How the partnership adds value |
|---|---|
| Accountants | Turn intangibles you already see on the client's file into a fundable route, alongside R&D and management-accounts work. |
| Commercial finance brokers | Add a genuinely differentiated product for clients who fail conventional secured lending. |
| Corporate-finance advisers | Give IP-rich clients a debt option to weigh against dilution — see debt vs equity for IP-rich clients. |
What Opagio provides
The deliverable is an assembled collateral-and-evidence pack — the single, structured submission a lender or independent valuer actually asks for. It moves the client from a scattered set of assets to a document a credit team can price risk against.
- A named-asset register of the client's intangibles;
- An Intangible Asset Valuator valuation prepared to IVS 210 (Intangible Assets), using the approach that fits each asset — Relief-from-Royalty, MPEEM, With-and-Without, Cost, DCF or Market;
- Graded evidence of ownership, use and commercial substance;
- A collateral-suitability read expressed as a plain result across separability, saleability and legal strength;
- A realisation view on an orderly-disposal basis, and the supporting financials a credit team expects.
A note on method: Relief-from-Royalty, MPEEM and With-and-Without are asset-level IVS 210 techniques — they value a specific intangible, not the company or an investment position, which is a distinct exercise. For lending, the valuation is built to a conservative premise: an orderly liquidation value rather than a going-concern headline, with ranges and sensitivity rather than a single "most likely" figure the downside can hide behind.
Why the pack lands with a lender
A credit committee applies three tests to any intangible offered as security: separability (can it be sold apart from the business), saleability (is there a plausible buyer in a disposal), and legal strength (is title clean, registered and enforceable). The pack answers those questions asset by asset, and applies them to a conservative disposal value — which is what sets the loan-to-value, not the headline number. It also confirms the encumbrance position at Companies House and the UK IPO, so a lender is not asked to assume clean title. Understand the concept in full at collateral suitability.
How you keep the relationship and capture the fee
The partnership is built so the adviser stays central. Opagio provides the specialist work; you provide the judgement, the timing and the ongoing relationship. Because the client is servicing an IP-backed facility from operating cash flow — the collateral is the fallback, not the repayment source — the serviceability and financial-planning conversation remains firmly yours. That is recurring advisory, not a one-off introduction.
Positioning the debt option against equity is also your territory: for many IP-rich founders a facility that avoids dilution is compelling, and framing that trade-off is exactly the value an adviser adds. The borrower's guide gives your client the lender's-eye view, while you hold the commercial narrative.
Getting started
The fastest way to test a specific client is a Lending Readiness Report — it shows you and the client where the gaps sit (title, valuation basis, serviceability) while they are still cheap to fix, before any lender sees the file. From there, the practical adviser workflow is set out in preparing a client for an IP-backed loan and building the collateral evidence pack.
Key takeaway: Start with one client and a Lending Readiness Report. It costs the client little, proves the model, and gives you a concrete, fundable introduction to make — with the relationship and the fee intact.
For the wider context, the intangible asset lending hub covers the market end to end, and NatWest IP-backed loans and HSBC growth lending set out the two live high-street routes. All LTV, DSCR and advance-rate figures throughout are indicative ranges, not guarantees.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Opagio adviser partnership?
It is a referral partnership that lets accountants, brokers and corporate-finance advisers add IP-backed lending to their offering. You identify and introduce the client and keep the relationship; Opagio assembles the specialist collateral-and-evidence pack — a named-asset register, an IVS-aligned valuation, graded evidence, a collateral-suitability read and financials — so the introduction is lender-ready without you becoming an IP valuer.
Do I lose the client relationship when I refer them?
No. The partnership is designed around a division of labour: Opagio does the specialist assembly, while you keep the client relationship, the commercial judgement and the ongoing advisory. Because the client services the facility from operating cash flow, the serviceability and planning conversation stays with you, so the relationship and the fee remain yours.
What does Opagio actually deliver for the client?
An assembled collateral-and-evidence pack: a named-asset register of the intangibles, a valuation prepared to IVS 210 using the approach that fits each asset (Relief-from-Royalty, MPEEM, With-and-Without, Cost, DCF or Market), graded ownership evidence, a collateral-suitability read across separability, saleability and legal strength, a realisation view on an orderly-disposal basis, and the supporting financials a credit team expects.
Which clients should I introduce?
Asset-light, cash-generative businesses whose value sits in intangibles — software firms, life-sciences companies, brands and R&D-intensive manufacturers — where the client can service debt from operating cash flow. Registered rights carry more weight than unregistered ones, and IP is a fallback after conventional security. Sense-check fit against IP loan eligibility before you introduce.
How do I get started with a client?
Run the client's intangibles through a Lending Readiness Report. It surfaces title, valuation-basis and serviceability gaps while they are still cheap to fix, before any lender sees the file, and gives you a concrete, fundable introduction to make. From there, follow the adviser workflow in preparing a client and building the collateral evidence pack.
Bring your first IP-rich client to the partnership
Run a Lending Readiness Report to prove the model on one client — it surfaces the gaps while they are cheap to fix and gives you a fundable introduction to make, with the relationship and the fee intact.
Start a Lending Readiness Report