Context
From Data to Value – Sizing Up Akrivia’s Formidable Moat
Context
Akrivia, a pioneering neuroscience data company spun out from Oxford and the NHS, possesses one of world's largest and most valuable repositories of neuroscience data. Combining structured and unstructured data, Akrivia’s proprietary AI and NLP technologies allow for groundbreaking insights that drive pharmaceutical innovation. The company’s partnerships with industry leaders such as Johnson & Johnson underscore its credibility and impact.
With $12 million raised to date, Akrivia is now focusing on maximising the value of its assets while ensuring strong IP protection as it expands internationally.
The Challenge
With a growing footprint and increasing investor interest, Akrivia sought a structured, efficient way to map, value, and protect its critical assets:
- Assessing and protecting its high-value assets – Conducting a comprehensive audit to identify the full scope of its intellectual property, including AI models, datasets, and proprietary methodologies.
- International expansion – Determining the best strategies for protecting assets across multiple jurisdictions while ensuring compliance and risk mitigation.
Akrivia’s unmatched and virtually irreplicable data is a formidable competitive moat. Its uniqueness makes it even more challenging to articulate clearly and compellingly.
The Process
Akrivia’s founders, the CEO and COO, engaged Intanify’s full Discover + Value + Risk capabilities, ensuring a thorough evaluation of its portfolio.
Discover – The platform mapped Akrivia’s key assets, consolidating structured and unstructured information into a holistic inventory of ~100 previously unrecognised assets.
Value – Using industry-standard methodologies, Intanify provided a detailed valuation of Akrivia’s AI, data assets, and proprietary tech.
Risk – A red flag analysis identified potential IP risks and provided actionable steps for mitigation.
Remarkably, the entire process required just two hours of engagement from Akrivia’s leadership team, with Intanify’s AI-driven platform automating the majority of the work.
Value Add
Akrivia saw value from four key areas:
- Defined Competitive Moat – A clear representation of key competitive advantages, articulating the assets that underpin its market leadership. Intanify's Moat Screen is a powerful addition to investor materials.
- Financing Opportunities – Armed with a granular valuation, Akrivia was connected to banks exploring IP-backed loans, offering alternative funding options which recognise the deep value in Akrivia's eixtsing assets and may reduce dilution.
- Comprehensive Report with Trade Secrets – A structured timeline of best practice recommendations, for example trade secrets and how the full force of the law can be harnassed at no cost to protect them.
- Expert Connections – Connections to the right lawyers and specialist advisors for the next steps in strengthening Akrivia’s IP strategy.
With this newfound clarity, Akrivia has now subscribed to Intanify as a long-term partner, ensuring its IP strategy remains robust and trade secrets are protected.
When presented with the option of a traditional engagement or a new style AI-enabled data-driven approach, it might have seemed obvious which route a data company like Akrivia would take. But we had to think about the risk of getting quality output from the process - we decided to take that ‘risk’ and thank goodness we did. We were delighted with the entire engagement through to deliverables. Couldn’t recommend Intanify more. Delighted with the end result and looking forward to continuing our relationship.”
With a comprehensive understanding of its assets, along with the risks and opportunities identified by Intanify, Akrivia can work with the right specialist experts to achieve its goals.
