Most people who land on Opagio expect a spreadsheet tool. A calculator, maybe. Something that takes a few inputs and returns a number.
Opagio is something different: a structured measurement framework that turns invisible value into auditable numbers — using the Opagio 12, a proprietary taxonomy of 12 intangible asset drivers, and six established valuation methods including Relief from Royalty and MPEEM.
The question "who is it for?" is worth answering directly. Opagio is not a general-purpose valuation tool. It is built for a specific set of situations where intangible assets are either the central issue or the missing piece.
Here are the six primary user types, what they need, and what Opagio delivers for each.
The situation: You have built something real — a customer base, a technology platform, institutional knowledge, a brand with genuine equity. Your accountant's valuation reflects the tangible assets on your balance sheet. A prospective investor or acquirer will price your company on something broader: the intangible infrastructure you have built.
The gap between those two numbers is often the difference between a fair deal and a great one.
What Opagio delivers: A structured assessment across all 12 intangible asset drivers — from brand equity and technology capital to organisational processes and data assets. The platform identifies, classifies, and values each asset using the appropriate method. The output is a board-ready Value Drivers Register with formal £-denominated valuations that stand up to buyer scrutiny.
A Series B SaaS founder preparing for PE acquisition runs the Opagio 12 assessment and identifies £1.4M in intangible value that was absent from the management accounts — proprietary algorithms, customer switching costs, and institutional process knowledge. That figure enters the negotiation as a documented asset, not a vague claim.
The exit readiness report also shows which drivers are weak relative to comparable businesses in the same sector — giving the founder a 90-day improvement plan before the deal process starts.
Best suited to: Founders at Series B or beyond with annual revenue of £5M+, considering exit, secondary, or listing within 12–36 months.
The situation: You have spent 15 years building a business. A broker gives you an indicative range based on a 5× EBITDA multiple applied to last year's profit. The number feels low — and it probably is.
EBITDA multiples capture what accountants can measure. They do not capture customer relationships that took a decade to build, operational processes that cannot be replicated quickly, or brand recognition that drives margin. These assets are real. They simply lack a home on the balance sheet under current IAS 38 rules.
What Opagio delivers: The platform identifies the intangible assets your business has built that a buyer will value — even if your accountant has not recognised them. It produces a structured evidence base that a broker can use with buyers, an M&A advisor can include in an information memorandum, and an acquirer's due diligence team can verify.
The revelation moment for most SME owners is not the total valuation figure — it is the list of 20–30 specific assets they did not know they had. Buyer conversations change when the seller can say "here are the assets, here is the evidence, here is the independent methodology."
The platform also identifies which assets are transferable to a buyer (separable) and which are tied to the founder personally — the distinction that drives negotiations around earnouts, retention, and deal structure.
Best suited to: Owner-managed businesses with £1M–£100M revenue, considering a sale within 12–24 months.
The situation: Your seed or Series A valuation is being set by negotiation, not by evidence. You have built real things — a working product, early customers, a technical team with specialist knowledge — but no formal mechanism to quantify them.
What Opagio delivers: A structured intangible asset assessment that produces a credible, evidence-based pre-money valuation. The assessment maps what you have built against the Opagio 12, applies recognised methods (Cost Approach, Berkus, Scorecard), and produces a valuation report the investor can scrutinise.
The difference between a founder who says "I think we're worth £8M pre" and a founder who says "here is the documented methodology showing the £8M, driver by driver" is not always the outcome — but it changes the power balance in the room.
Best suited to: Pre-seed to Series A founders, 1–25 people, raising institutional capital.
The situation: You are evaluating an acquisition, post-LOI. The financial model is built. The revenue quality is understood. But the question the model cannot answer is: what is actually driving the EBITDA? Is it the brand, the customer relationships, the proprietary technology, or the founder personally?
The answer determines what you are buying, what the right price is, what risks exist post-close, and what a Purchase Price Allocation will produce for the balance sheet on Day 1.
| Due diligence question | What Opagio provides |
|---|---|
| What intangible assets exist in the target? | Full Opagio 12 assessment with driver-level evidence |
| What are they worth? | Formal valuations (RFR, MPEEM, Cost, W&W) by asset type |
| How separable are they from the current owner? | Accounting view alongside management view |
| What does PPA look like under IFRS 3? | Pre-built classification aligned to ASC 805 / IFRS 3 |
| Which assets drive the value creation plan? | Driver gap analysis vs sector benchmarks |
| What is the goodwill decomposition? | Goodwill allocated across identifiable intangible categories |
The platform also supports value creation planning post-acquisition. Opagio scores each intangible driver, benchmarks it against comparable businesses, and produces a prioritised improvement plan — the analytical foundation for the 100-day plan.
For PE firms with multiple portfolio companies, Opagio provides a portfolio dashboard that applies the same Opagio 12 framework across every company. LP reporting, fund-level benchmarking, and exit timing decisions all benefit from a consistent methodology rather than bespoke analysis for each company.
Best suited to: PE operating partners, deal teams, and investment associates handling acquisitions of £5M–£500M+ enterprise value.
The situation: You are pitching for a sell-side mandate. Your competition can present the same financial model, the same precedent transactions, the same comparable company analysis. The question is what you show them in the first meeting that no one else can.
The Opagio 12 radar chart — a visual representation of where the business scores across all 12 intangible drivers — has become a mandate-winning tool for advisors using the platform. It takes 10 minutes to run during the first client meeting. It shows the client something they have never seen about their own business. It sets the analytical agenda for the mandate.
What Opagio delivers for advisors:
Best suited to: Corporate finance boutiques, M&A advisors, and business brokers handling £5M–£250M transactions.
The situation: A client asks you what their business is worth. You know the financial accounts. You can apply a multiple. But the client's instinct — that the business is worth more than the accounts suggest — is often correct. You just lack the framework to prove it.
Opagio gives accountants and business advisors a structured, methodology-backed tool to run intangible asset assessments alongside their standard services. The assessment can be run in a client meeting. The output is a professional report with the advisor's branding. The methodology (the Opagio 12) is defensible, consistent, and grounded in IFRS and accounting standards.
For practitioners, Opagio is a new service line, not a replacement for existing ones. Intangible asset advisory sits between compliance (what you have) and corporate finance (what it's worth) — a space most accountancy firms are not yet serving systematically.
The platform also includes an Academy with six programmes, each covering a core area of intangible asset valuation and strategy, with CPD-eligible certification.
Best suited to: Chartered accountants, management consultants, growth advisors, and business brokers advising owner-managed businesses.
Being clear about fit matters. Opagio is not the right tool for:
The most common starting point is the Intangible Asset Valuator — a free tool that walks you through the Opagio 12 assessment, identifies your assets, and runs your first valuation. Most users complete their first assessment in under 20 minutes.
For practitioners and teams, the platform's onboarding flow begins with a 10-question intent assessment that routes you into the experience most relevant to your situation — whether you are a founder, an investor, an advisor, or exploring for a specific client.
If you want to understand the methodology first, the complete guide to the Opagio 12 covers the full framework, its grounding in accounting standards, and how each of the 12 drivers maps to recognised intangible asset categories under IFRS 3 and IAS 38.
Ivan Gowan is CEO of Opagio and former senior technology leader at IG Group, where he led engineering growth from 4 to 250 people during the company's rise from £300m to £2.7bn market capitalisation. He previously advised PensionBee from seed to LSE listing.
Assess your 12 value drivers to understand your intangible asset strengths, gaps, and growth opportunities.
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