Founded in 2016 to harness technology developed at the University of Leicester, EarthSense has grown significantly, boasting a 60% year-on-year growth rate and expanding its team to 26 employees at Space Park, Leicester. The company provides air quality monitoring solutions to organisations such as local councils, transport companies, and the construction industry, addressing pollution issues at both local and national levels.

EarthSense's innovative solutions include the award-winning Zephyr air quality monitor and the MyAir platform, which allows users to access air quality data through the MappAir global model. Seeking to scale further, EarthSense turned to NatWest's new high growth lending proposition for support.

NatWest recently became the first UK high street bank to offer intellectual property-backed lending to high growth SMEs. These loans start from £250,000 and can cover up to 50% of the value of a firm's intellectual property. This initiative aims to enhance the funding pipeline for scale-ups, which often struggle to secure loans due to a lack of fixed assets.

By providing IP-backed loans, NatWest intends to support the growth of innovative companies like EarthSense, ensuring they have the financial resources needed to expand and address critical environmental issues.

Tom Hall, CEO of EarthSense, said: “In terms of our business, we see IP as our most important asset. So, when our NatWest Relationship Manager, Andy Edwards, mentioned the new IP-backed loan, we did bite his hand off!”

Tom added that the Inngot platform’s valuation for EarthSense’s IP was more than enough for NatWest to offer them the initial funding they needed, which was focused on overseas expansion and on expanding the company’s IP. But, he continued, “we are expecting to expand our IP asset base significantly in the next 12 months, and I would expect to be coming back in and leveraging the value of our IP further. Using the IP backed loan, it will allow us to bring our air quality solutions to even more countries.”

Neil Bellamy, Head of Technology, Media and Telecoms at NatWest, said: “As Britain’s biggest bank for startups, at NatWest we see innovative and disruptive businesses like EarthSense pass through our doors every day. We believe in powering up their success, which is why we are the only UK bank to offer a mass-market IP-backed lending proposition for SMEs, starting from amounts as low as £250,000.

“We know that access to finance is often the biggest hurdle for high growth tech firms, who may have incredible IP, but can lack the tangible assets needed to secure growth funding. Solving this problem will help companies like EarthSense develop solutions to tackle the world’s most pressing problems, while driving forward their growth and boosting the UK economy.”

Martin Brassell, CEO of Inngot, the specialist IP evaluation company which valued EarthSense’s IP, said: “This loan showcases the importance of IP and innovation in addressing the climate challenges we all face – and demonstrates that the assets driving the transformation we need can themselves be leveraged for finance. It also proves that with NatWest and Inngot’s approach, it is possible to take these business-critical assets properly into account even at modest levels of lending. This points to the role IP can now play in fostering growth, from the beginning of a scaleup’s journey, right through to maturity.”