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Intangible Asset Valuation Tools and Platforms Compared
Most of what a modern business is worth no longer appears on its balance sheet. Brand, software, customer relationships, data and proprietary processes now account for most of the market value of large listed companies — yet the question founders and finance leaders keep asking is a practical one: what do I actually use to measure and value them?
The honest answer is that the category is fragmented. There is no single instrument that covers every situation, and the right choice depends on why you are valuing, who will read the result, and whether you need a one-off number or an ongoing view. This guide maps the main categories of intangible asset valuation tools, names the providers that operate in each, and sets out how to choose between them.
~90%
of S&P 500 market value sat in intangible assets in 2020 (Ocean Tomo, Intangible Asset Market Value Study)
6
broad categories of tool that value intangibles
3
valuation approaches in the International Valuation Standards: market, income and cost (IVS 105)
What are intangible asset valuation tools?
An intangible asset valuation tool is any instrument — a spreadsheet model, an advisory engagement, or a software product — that produces a defensible value for a non-physical asset such as a brand, a piece of software, a customer base or a patent. The recognised approaches are consistent across the market: relief from royalty, the multi-period excess earnings method, the with-and-without method, and a cost or replacement-cost approach. What differs between tools is not usually the underlying method but the packaging: who runs it, how much it costs, how quickly it delivers, and whether it captures a single moment or tracks value over time.
★ Key Takeaway
The valuation methods are largely standardised. The real decision is which type of tool fits your purpose — a formal report for a transaction, a fast benchmark for a raise, or an ongoing measurement view for managing value over time.
What tools exist for valuing intangible assets?
The market divides into six broad categories. Each is built for a different job.
Categories of intangible asset valuation tool
| Category | What it produces | Examples | Typical user |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spreadsheets and manual models | A bespoke royalty or discounted-cash-flow model built by hand | Excel, consultant-built models | One-off, low-frequency valuations |
| Professional valuation firms | A formal, signed valuation report | Brand Finance, Ocean Tomo (J.S. Held), the Big Four | M&A, disputes, audit support |
| IP valuation specialists | IP profiling, IP valuation and loan suitability checks, plus IP audit and strategy services | Inngot | IP valuation, IP audit and IP-backed lending support |
| Startup valuation platforms | A company-level valuation combining several startup valuation methods (per Equidam) | Equidam | Early-stage fundraising |
| PPA software | Intangible valuation for transaction accounting | Invalue | Purchase price allocation based on IFRS 3 principles (per Invalue) |
| Dedicated intangible platforms | Ongoing measurement plus asset-level valuation | Opagio | SMEs, founders and PE measuring value over time |
Spreadsheets remain the most common starting point, and for a single, well-scoped asset they are perfectly serviceable. Their weakness is repeatability: a hand-built model is only as reliable as the person who maintained it, and it rarely survives the move from one asset to a whole portfolio. Professional firms sit at the other end: a formal, signed report prepared to an agreed scope, typically commissioned for a transaction, dispute or audit.
ℹ Note
"IP valuation" and "intangible asset valuation" are not the same scope. Intellectual property — patents, trademarks, registered designs — is a subset of intangible assets, which also cover brand, customer relationships, data, content and process know-how. Check the scope each provider states against the assets your business depends on.
Platforms for PE firms measuring intangible asset value
Private equity has a distinct need. On acquisition, purchase price allocation under IFRS 3 or ASC 805 requires acquired intangibles to be identified and valued separately from goodwill — and the more that is separately identified and supported, the cleaner the residual goodwill. That work typically uses the multi-period excess earnings method and relief from royalty, and it is the focus of PPA software such as Invalue (per its site) and of accounting-firm valuation teams.
Through the hold period the need changes again. A fund managing a portfolio wants to know which intangible assets are strengthening, which are weakening, and how that is moving each company's value — an ongoing measurement question rather than a one-off report. Dedicated measurement platforms are built for that recurring cadence.
Intangible asset valuation providers in the UK
The UK market is shaped by its IP-backed lending programmes. NatWest and RBS Scotland now lend against intangible assets, HSBC UK evaluates IP within its Growth Lending, and Inngot is the independent valuer behind NatWest's High Growth IP Loan — so a business that wants to borrow against its IP should first ask the lender which valuation it requires. Brand Finance, headquartered in London, is a brand valuation consultancy (per its site). For SMEs and founders who want to understand and grow the full intangible base rather than commission a single report, Opagio is UK-first by design, with jurisdiction-aware treatment for UK, US, Canadian, Australian and Irish standards.
✔ Example
An SME preparing for sale usually needs three different things at three different moments — a view of what intangible value exists today, a formal report if a buyer's advisers request one, and, if it wants to borrow before the sale, a lending-oriented assessment. No single provider is the answer to all three, which is why understanding the categories matters more than picking a name.
How to choose an intangible asset valuation tool
Five questions settle most decisions:
Why are you valuing?
A transaction, an audit, a fundraise, a loan, or internal management each point to a different category of tool.
Who will read the result?
An auditor or acquirer wants a formal, method-transparent report; a board wants a decision-useful view; a lender wants collateral evidence.
One moment or ongoing?
A single asset at a point in time suits a spreadsheet or a firm. A portfolio you track over time needs a platform.
Whole base or one asset?
Brand-only, IP-only and full-intangible-base tools are different scopes — match the tool to the breadth you need.
What is the method behind the number?
A credible tool shows its working — which of relief from royalty, excess earnings, with-and-without or cost it used, and why.
Where Opagio fits
Opagio is a measurement layer for intangible assets rather than a single-report tool, offered as two products.
Opagio Growth Forecaster is free and works top-down. It forecasts intangible value and productivity at the firm level to give founders and owners an early, directional read. It does not read general-ledger data and does not run asset-level valuation methods — it is a starting point, not a formal valuation.
Opagio Intangibles is the paid product and works bottom-up from a company's own data. Its Asset Valuator runs recognised asset-level methods — RFR (relief from royalty), MPEEM, With and Without, Cost (replacement cost or sum of cost), Market (comparable transactions) and Greenfield — on named assets, with the user choosing the method. It produces a single fair value, with sensitivity tables for relief from royalty, MPEEM, with-and-without and replacement cost, a Report Studio PDF report and a scenario comparison CSV. Alongside it, the Value Drivers Register catalogues the organisation's intangible assets across the Opagio 12 value drivers, and a Normalised P&L shows the accounts on the Reported, Accounting-eligible and Management bases, one at a time. Financial data and Opagio 12 value drivers update monthly from Xero or a CSV upload, and each asset keeps a dated valuation history, so the product suits an ongoing measurement need.
★ Key Takeaway
Opagio's role in this landscape is the ongoing measurement layer — monthly data linked to a dated history of asset valuations — rather than a substitute for a formal transaction report where one is required.
Frequently asked questions
What tools exist for valuing intangible assets?
Six broad categories: spreadsheets and manual models, professional valuation firms (such as Brand Finance and Ocean Tomo), IP valuation specialists (such as Inngot), startup valuation platforms (such as Equidam), PPA software (such as Invalue), and dedicated intangible measurement platforms (such as Opagio). Each fits a different purpose — a one-off report, a fundraise benchmark, a lending assessment, or ongoing measurement.
How do private equity firms measure intangible asset value?
On acquisition, PE firms allocate the purchase price under IFRS 3 or ASC 805, valuing acquired intangibles separately from goodwill — typically with the multi-period excess earnings method and relief from royalty, using PPA software or accounting-firm teams. Through the hold period, some funds also use measurement platforms to track how each portfolio company's intangible value is changing.
Which intangible asset valuation providers operate in the UK?
The UK landscape includes Inngot (IP valuation, IP audit and IP-backed lending support, and the independent valuer for NatWest's High Growth IP Loan), Brand Finance (brand valuation), the Big Four (transaction and audit support), and Opagio (a UK-first measurement platform for SMEs, founders and PE). The right one depends on whether you need a report, a loan assessment, or an ongoing view.
Can you value intangible assets in a spreadsheet?
Yes, for a single, well-scoped asset a spreadsheet model is a reasonable approach — and it is how many valuations still begin. Its limits show up at scale: hand-built models can be hard to keep consistent and to review, and do not always extend cleanly from one asset to a whole portfolio, which is when dedicated tools earn their place.
The practical takeaway is to start from purpose, not product. Decide why you are valuing and who will read the result, and the category of tool — and usually the provider — follows. For a fuller treatment of the underlying approaches, see our guide to intangible asset valuation methods, and for a worked comparison of a platform approach against a traditional engagement, Opagio versus a traditional valuation.
About the author
Ivan Gowan is Founder and CEO of Opagio, where he leads the technology and practitioner work behind the measurement of intangible assets. He writes on how founders and finance leaders can make the majority of company value visible. Read more from the team on the Opagio team page.
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