Aranca: Unlocking New Business Possibilities with IP & Business Valuation Date:   Wednesday , October 08, 2014 Dealing with intangible and intellectual assets is way more tortuous than dealing with tangible assets. Gone are the days when IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) were solely seen as legal agendas. IPRs today play a significant role in corporate strategy andthe accurate valuation of IP remains a major impediment to their emergence as a tradable asset. According to WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization), Patent filings grew by 9.2 percent in 2012 which is the fastest growth recorded in the past 18 years. Similar growths were witnessed in the number of industrial designs and trademarks and other forms of IPs. While litigation associated with protecting IP rights will remain a fact of life, the focus is rapidly shifting to premeditated management of IP as is evident from a rapidly rising number of companies trying to exploit their IP through licensing, launching joint ventures or utilizing IP as key rationale for M&A activity and raising funds. For instance, it is flabbergasting to see the valuation at which some companies like Uber, WhatsApp, Pinterest, Zynga and Groupon have got funded. Though the market of IP is growing, to get such gross worth for IPs, companies require such partners who not just determine their IP value but understand their technology, products and offerings to fetch them the correct worth of their IPs. Serving such needs of the corporates, Aranca Pvt. Ltd. was founded in London in 2003. The company has developed niche capabilities to help corporates find opportunities, commercialize their patents as well as value their IP portfolio. IP has emerged as one of the key drivers in M&A deals and yet many companies have a tough time estimating what it is worth. In several M&A deals, valuation of IP assets is done as an afterthought, as investment bankers and financial advisors working on the transaction often sideline issues concerning IP assets that could potentially alter or complicate the deal. Based in Mumbai in India, Aranca\'s IP research services are focused on patent/technology driven industries.It helps corporates, law firms, universities and IP intermediary firms in a wide range of outsourced research & advisory services across the intellectual property life-cycle right from innovation to competitive landscape evaluation to patent commercialization. Apart from specializing in IP commercialization, Aranca helps businesses realize their true worth.Aranca boasts of its full service business valuation practice. It specializes in valuing technology especially in the new age economy sectors ? including online advertising, social media, e-Commerce, m-Commerce, alternate energy, biotechnology and others. The organization has created a strong and a credible brand in this space having valued over 700 start-ups and emerging companies in U.S. backed by top tier VCs. \"Our differentiation is built around our strong credentials and qualifications in business valuation, coupled with diverse yet complementary capabilities in business/market research and especially intellectual property research. These capabilities enable us to bring insights from an industry, technology as well as financial/investment perspective,\" says Hemendra Aran, Founder & CEO, Aranca. A vast body of work across multiple industry sectors, product/service domains, as well as geographies across the world allow Aranca to bring in unique insights into every new client situation. Over time, the company has developed internal proprietary methodologies to convert this understanding into specific solutions for clients, be it a valuation or IP analysis. The biggest asset for any IP organization is their employees and their extravaganza pool of knowledge. Aranca follows unconventional strategiesto promote employee-proposed evolutionary strategies with linked rewards to foster a strong milieu of internal entrepreneurship or \'Intrapreneurship\'. The company also encourages approaching client engagement and service delivery to transform the relationship to a participatory one via well-structured collaboration and interaction, resulting in a deeper understanding of client motivations and insight needs. \"Our core values of \'Listen, Care, Respect\' and \'Learn, Learn, Learn\' are deeply ingrained across the business. Though telephone conversations can be overheard in English as well as a variety of foreign languages, yet we all speak the common Arancan tongue of camaraderie among ourselves. For Aranca, being a global organization is not just words, we live it every day,\" adds Hemendra. Losing the Milk Teeth Every child must lose their milk teeth to grow their adult teeth. Aranca believes to be going through the same exciting stage in its growth. Like every other organization on the threshold of explosive evolution, Aranca too is going through growth pains involved in going from an organically growing business, to the necessary entrepreneurial empowerment of individual business units. The company envisions becoming a $100 million business over the next 5 years. It wishes to meet its objectives by a combination of geographic diversity via new delivery and engagement offices being opened, and adding new and exciting services to its portfolio. The organization looks forward to further fuel its growth trajectory through inorganic growth. Aranca plans to growfrom two to three full-scale delivery centers across India to leverage local talent around various metros in the nearest future. \"While the bulk of our valuation business has hitherto come from the U.S., we have emerged as a preferred valuation firm for several client segments across other markets, especially emerging markets across Asia, the Middle East, and of course India. Within the next 5 years, we aim to be the global benchmark for knowledge partnership and insight provision to business decision makers, within our field of business,\" concludes Hemendra. Panel: Headquarters: Mumbai, India Other offices: Gurgaon, London, New York, Palo Alto CA Management: Hemendra Aran, Founder & CEO, Aranca Research & Analytics Pvt Ltd. Hemendra founded Aranca (Mumbai) in 2003.Aran started his career with Infosys where he worked on complex outsourcing, project management and process reengineering consultancy assignments. He has authored several books on outsourcing and global financial markets. Services Offered: Intellectual Property Research Services and Valuation & Advisory Services Achievements: 1.Well-established global firm, with a firm 50 percent growth pipeline and matching track record. ISO27001:2013 certified. 2.Recognized as a brand leader in the IP and valuation research knowledge partnership space world-wide. Knowledge partner to CII (Confederation of Indian Industry) andEuromoney Conferences. CEO Speak From the hottest start-ups to Fortune 500 companies, Aranca is a highly trusted partner when it comes to customized research and analytics. CXOs and decision makers across the world rely on Aranca for services ranging from business, investment and patent research to valuations and advisory services, before making key strategic decisions. They perceive Aranca as a company that is excellent at delivering actionable insights, not just dry research/analysis.This is because Aranca empowers its customers through state of the art knowledge systems, and an excellent and motivated team. Aranca\'s business and IP valuation practice is a unique offering, setting new benchmarks in valuation of new technology and Intellectual property driven companies.