Fund takes a new strategy to unlocking value by investing in, and accelerating the commercializing of intangible assets
November 15, 2018: EverEdge Global today announced the launch of its new investment arm, EverEdge Capital. EverEdge Capital will specialize in making investments in, and helping to monetize, intangible assets to deliver strong investment returns to both innovators and investors. It is currently seeking and reviewing investment opportunities across Australia, South East Asia and New Zealand.
Paul Adams, CEO of EverEdge Global, said “Intangible assets, such as brands, data, content, code, confidential information, patents and regulatory approvals, comprise over 87% of shareholder value in companies today. However, across more than 750 client engagements over the last decade we have consistently seen that intangible assets are mis-priced and under-valued. To address this market vacuum, EverEdge Global has launched a new, independent investment arm, EverEdge Capital to assist intangible asset rich companies to unlock their value.”
EverEdge Capital will be headed by experienced investment banker and special situation private equity investor Francis Milner, recently returned to New Zealand from Europe. As Chief Investment Officer Francis will be responsible for deploying capital via a proprietary investment strategy designed to identify and monetize high value intangible assets. Capital will be deployed both directly from EverEdge Capital and through co-investment transactions.
Francis commented, “Research unequivocally demonstrates that sustainable long-term company value is derived primarily via leveraging intangible assets. However, intangible assets are typically absent, mispriced or under-valued on balance sheets. In contrast, conventional investment decisions continue to be driven and justified by tangible asset analysis. As a result, significant intangible value remains unrealised or unknown.”
“To address this issue, EverEdge Capital has developed a proprietary investment strategy. We utilize bespoke tools and models that have been refined over EverEdge Global’s 750 client engagements to successfully monetize intangible assets and deliver solid returns to our investors.”
EverEdge Capital is currently seeking and reviewing investment opportunities with individual inventors, start-ups and companies that have:
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High potential intangible assets, which are undeveloped or insufficiently commercialized;
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Limitations in capital, time, experience or expertise to monetize their assets;
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An inability to execute higher value commercialization options (known or unknown); or
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Idle or under-utilized intangible assets.
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Liquidation, receivership or stressed situations where there are potentially valuable intangible assets.
Francis added, “Our strategy means we can look at a much broader array of opportunities than traditional investors. We are less concerned with the stage or age of the company and instead are focused on finding opportunities to unlock value in under-utilized intangible assets. We do this in two ways – first, by investing in opportunities around a specific intangible asset (such as a, brand, trade secret, patent or data) where we are able to identify potential value in the asset and can help to maximize that value.
“Second, we will invest in established operating businesses where we can use our expertise to fast-track the monetization of embedded intangible asset value. For these investments, we will align ourselves with the business and contribute to the management of its day-to-day operations, investing our own resources to fund, execute and realise successful commercialization strategies so that everybody wins.”
Examples of potential investment candidates include individual inventors who have been unable to commercialize their inventions; bricks and mortar businesses that have innovative products but have been unable to leverage those beyond a core market; shareholders in start-ups where the company may have failed but the intangible assets remain intact; or research projects where the technology is strong but the science team may lack the capacity to monetize the technology.
Francis concluded “If you look at the top 20 reasons companies don’t succeed, none of those are related to technology failure. Based on our experience, we believe there are literally tens of thousands of companies across Australia, South East Asia and New Zealand that EverEdge Capital can assist. That’s great for innovators and great for our investors.”
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For further information, or to discuss investment opportunities, please contact:
Francis Milner, EverEdge Capital Chief Investment Officer
M: +64 22 305 2107
P: +64 9 489 2331