M&G Catalyst Invests $300M In Aon Intellectual Property-Backed Lending

Aon Advantage Funds – an affiliated investment advisor of the brokerage and advisory giant Aon – has launched a vehicle to provide corporations, primarily in North America, new ways to access capital based on the value of their intellectual property (IP), with a $300 million commitment from UK global asset manager M&G Investments through its Catalyst private assets strategy.

The fund’s mission is to pursue insured first lien IP-backed loans with equity-backed, innovation-led organizations, prioritizing opportunities with strong potential to help drive a positive impact for society through the application of their IP.

“Aon Advantage Funds can help organizations protect and grow their business by matching capital with companies that have transformative technologies, enabling better capital decisions for emerging companies,” said Matthew Farrar, managing partner and head of Aon Advantage Funds, LLC.

To date, Aon has supported more than $1 billion of financing through the services offered by its Chicago-based IP Solutions group and the lending strategies offered by Aon Advantage Funds.

M&G has over $425 billion of assets under management. M&G’s Catalyst global strategy has invested up to $5.6 billion into privately owned businesses working to “create a more sustainable world,” according to the firm.

According to Aon, its strategy is built on an IP platform of almost 150 million global patents mapped to more than 7,000 markets. As of 2022, Aon’s IP Advantage Funds had access to more than $550 million in available capital.