Plantagon is a world leader in vertical farming

Plantagon International AB operates in the urban agriculture sector and is a world leader in vertical farming. Their vertical greenhouses reduce the need for energy, water and pesticides, and make use of emissions of carbon dioxide, CO2, and the waste heat from homes, industries and offices. Plantagon is a Swedish company but their concept creates the greatest benefit in multimillion cities with high population density, particularly in Asia.

Assets in tech start-ups exists mainly in IP

Plantagon is a growing tech start-up, still without established revenue streams. Therefore, traditional methods for valuation based on cash flow does not work in this type of company, where the assets are intangible and exists mainly in IP. It is therefore the IP portfolio of Plantagon that constitutes the company’s value.

Plantagon wanted to use its IP portfolio to attract further funding. We have previously valued Plantagon’s patent portfolio (read the case here). However, there was no established value for Plantagon’s brand.

Brand valuation based on the international ISO standard

We conducted a brand valuation based on Swedish Standard SS-ISO 10668:2010 (Brand valuation – Requirements for monetary brand valuation (ISO 10668:2010, IDT)). The value is calculated according to the standard by three parallel analyses; one financial, one legal, and one market analysis. The financial analysis can be done based on returns, market value or costs, and for Plantagon, cost estimate was chosen, as neither return nor market valuation had given a fair value. The legal analysis investigates issues related to both ownership and trademark protection, such as registrations, distinctiveness, competitive rights, possible ongoing disputes, etc. The market analysis examines the forecasts of market size, behavioural factors and the brand’s communicative strength. The standard also sets specific requirements regarding transparency, validity, reliability, definition, purpose and value concept. We collected the material for valuation through interviews with key people, database searches, internal policy documents and other external sources.

Through our strategic approach and our established partnerships, we could establish a value for the brand within a narrow range, based on the financial information and adjusted with regards to legal and market strengths and weaknesses.

Plantagon could, after our valuation, highlight a previously hidden asset and use this asset to attract further funding as well as basis for future strategic considerations.