When institutional investors evaluate an IPO, they scrutinise revenue growth, margins, market size, and competitive positioning. But what they are actually pricing — whether they articulate it this way or not — is the intangible asset base that produces those financial outcomes. The technology platform that enables scalable delivery. The customer relationships that generate recurring revenue. The brand that reduces acquisition costs. The regulatory permissions that create barriers to entry.
I have seen this dynamic play out from the inside. At IG Group, I was part of the senior leadership team during the company's refloat after private equity ownership. I also invested in PensionBee's first funding round in 2014 and worked closely with the founders through their entire journey to listing on the London Stock Exchange. Both experiences confirmed the same truth: the companies that achieve strong IPO valuations are the ones that can articulate their intangible asset story clearly enough for public market investors to price it.
An IPO is not a liquidity event for your shares. It is a pricing event for your intangible assets. The quality of your intangible asset narrative directly determines your listing valuation. Start building that narrative years before the IPO, not months.
Public market investors apply a framework that looks financial on the surface but is fundamentally about intangible assets underneath.
Revenue growth tells investors that your customer acquisition engine works — which means your brand, product, and distribution channels are functioning intangible assets. Margin expansion tells them your technology creates operating leverage — the platform scales without proportional cost increases. Net revenue retention tells them your customer relationships deepen over time — a signal that switching costs and product stickiness are real.
Every financial metric that matters in an IPO is, at its core, a proxy for intangible asset quality. The founders who understand this frame their prospectus narrative differently — and achieve better valuations as a result.
I met Romi Savova and Jonathan Lister, the founders of PensionBee, in 2014 and invested in their first funding round. Over the following years, I worked closely with them on client proposition development, mobile-first strategy, onboarding flows, and growth mechanics. Watching PensionBee go from a seed-stage startup to a publicly listed company on the London Stock Exchange taught me an enormous amount about how intangible assets translate into IPO value.
PensionBee's intangible asset story was built on several pillars. The technology platform consolidated fragmented pension pots into a single, mobile-first interface — a genuine product innovation. The brand became synonymous with pension simplicity, achieving organic recognition that reduced customer acquisition costs over time. The customer relationships were sticky by nature: once someone consolidates their pensions, the switching cost is substantial.
PensionBee's mobile-first strategy — which I helped push, drawing on the playbook that had transformed IG — had an outsized impact on growth. Mobile apps became the primary acquisition and engagement channel, mirroring what we had seen at IG a decade earlier. This was an intangible asset strategy disguised as a product decision. The mobile platform became a competitive moat that competitors could not easily replicate.
The IPO prospectus needed to translate these intangible assets into language that institutional investors could price. The technology platform was expressed through unit economics — cost to serve per customer, scalability metrics. The brand was evidenced through declining customer acquisition costs and growing organic traffic. The customer relationships were measured through retention rates and assets under management per customer.
IG Group's return to public markets after private equity ownership presented a different challenge. This was not a startup listing for the first time — it was a mature, profitable business with a well-established intangible asset base returning to public scrutiny.
The intangible assets that powered the refloat valuation were the same ones that had driven value creation during PE ownership: the trading technology platform, regulatory licences across multiple jurisdictions, a deeply trusted brand in financial services, and a customer base with high lifetime value.
The challenge was translating these assets into a public market narrative. The City had historically questioned why IG's technology cost base was so high — I experienced this tension directly. The answer, of course, was that the technology investment was building an intangible asset that would generate returns for decades. But public market analysts think in quarterly earnings, not in intangible asset compounding periods.
One of the most common IPO mistakes is presenting technology investment as a cost rather than as an asset-building activity. In the prospectus narrative, every pound spent on engineering should be connected to a specific capability, competitive advantage, or revenue enablement outcome. Investors need to see R&D as asset creation, not as expense.
Most IPO readiness checklists focus on governance, financial controls, and regulatory compliance. These are necessary but insufficient. A complete IPO preparation must include an intangible asset audit.
Identify every intangible asset across the six categories: technology, customer relationships, brand, human capital, data, and organisational capital. Use the Opagio Questionnaire to structure this process.
For each intangible asset, document its contribution to revenue, margin, or competitive positioning. This becomes the evidence base for your prospectus narrative.
Estimate what it would cost a competitor to replicate each asset. Assets with high replacement costs and long build times are the strongest valuation drivers.
Connect each intangible asset to the financial metrics investors will scrutinise. Technology enables margin. Brand reduces CAC. Customer relationships drive retention. Make these connections explicit.
Have your NOMAD, broker, or financial advisor review the intangible asset narrative. They will tell you whether institutional investors will find it credible and compelling.
For UK-based companies considering a public listing, the choice between AIM and the Main Market has significant implications for how intangible assets are disclosed and valued.
| Requirement | AIM | Main Market |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum market capitalisation | None | 30 million pounds (typically 50 million+ in practice) |
| Trading history required | None | 3 years of audited accounts |
| Free float minimum | No formal minimum | 25% of shares in public hands |
| Prospectus regime | Admission Document (lighter) | Full EU Prospectus Regulation |
| Intangible asset disclosure | Limited — NOMAD-guided | Detailed — auditor-reviewed goodwill and intangible asset notes |
| Ongoing reporting | Half-yearly | Half-yearly plus quarterly trading updates (expected) |
| Corporate governance code | QCA or equivalent | UK Corporate Governance Code (comply or explain) |
| IFRS requirement | Optional (UK GAAP acceptable) | Mandatory |
The Main Market requires IFRS reporting, which means intangible assets acquired through business combinations must be recognised and valued under IFRS 3 and IAS 38. AIM companies can use UK GAAP (FRS 102), which has less detailed intangible asset recognition requirements. Neither framework captures internally generated intangible assets well — which is precisely why the prospectus narrative matters so much.
For companies with significant internally generated intangible assets — technology platforms, customer relationships, brand — the formal accounting treatment will understate their value regardless of which market you choose. The prospectus narrative is where you bridge the gap between what the accounts show and what the business is actually worth.
Having observed multiple listing processes, I see the same mistakes repeated by founders who do not think in intangible asset terms.
Treating technology as a cost centre in financial presentations. When your financial model shows engineering as the largest cost line, institutional investors see a margin risk. When your prospectus positions the same investment as building a proprietary technology asset with quantified competitive advantages, investors see a value driver.
Failing to quantify brand value. Many founders describe their brand qualitatively — "strong reputation in the market" — without connecting it to measurable outcomes. The evidence that matters is declining customer acquisition costs, growing organic search traffic, increasing referral rates, and premium pricing power. These are the financial fingerprints of brand equity.
Ignoring regulatory and compliance assets. Companies in regulated industries often take their licences and compliance infrastructure for granted. But regulatory permissions are intangible assets with enormous replacement costs and long lead times. Make them visible in your IPO narrative.
Institutional investors are not allergic to intangible assets — they simply need the story told in their language. The most effective IPO narratives I have seen follow a consistent structure.
Lead with the financial outcomes (revenue, margins, retention). Then explain the intangible assets that produce those outcomes. Then demonstrate why those assets are defensible and compounding. This three-layer narrative — outcomes, assets, defensibility — is what separates a well-priced IPO from an undervalued one. Use the Opagio Valuator to build the quantitative foundation for this narrative.
Start with the metrics that matter to public market investors: revenue growth, margin trajectory, unit economics, and retention. Then peel back one layer and explain what drives those metrics — the intangible assets. Your technology platform enables margin expansion because it scales without proportional cost. Your brand reduces acquisition costs because customers find you organically. Your customer relationships generate net revenue retention above 100% because your product becomes embedded in workflows.
Finally, explain why these intangible assets are defensible. How long would it take a competitor to build an equivalent technology platform? What barriers exist to replicating your customer relationships? How has your brand been built in ways that cannot be shortcut with marketing spend?
This three-layer narrative — outcomes, assets, defensibility — is the structure that gives institutional investors confidence to price intangible value into your listing.
If you are considering a public listing in the next two to three years, the intangible asset preparation should start now. Eighteen months is the minimum. You need time to build the measurement infrastructure, establish trend data, and develop the narrative. Rushing this process leads to the undervaluation mistakes described above.
The founders who achieve the strongest IPO valuations are the ones who have been measuring and communicating their intangible asset story for years before the listing — through investor updates, board materials, and stakeholder communications. By the time the prospectus is written, the narrative is well-rehearsed and evidence-rich.
Start with a comprehensive intangible asset assessment. Build measurement into your quarterly reporting. And develop the vocabulary to talk about your intangible assets in terms that resonate with the investors who will ultimately price your shares.
Ivan Gowan is CEO of Opagio. He spent 15 years at IG Group (LSE: IGG) as part of the senior leadership team and invested in PensionBee's first funding round, working closely with the founders through to their LSE listing. He holds an MSc from the University of Edinburgh with neural networks research (2001). Learn more about our team.
IG Group's journey from management buyout through private equity ownership to public listing is a masterclass in how equity structures create, capture, and compound intangible value. As CTO during this transformation, I watched IG grow from a 300 million pound business to a 2.7 billion pound one — driven almost entirely by intangible assets that never appeared on the balance sheet.
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