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The Assetizer · 3 June 2025

Podcast: From Patent Trolls to Data Wealth Funds: The Scholarly Take on Assetization

There's a growing academic field studying assetization, and Professor Kean Birch is one of its pioneers. From wind farm infrastructure to collective data governance models, his research reveals the fascinating mechanics and innovative approaches emerging as we expand the investment universe.

From Patent Trolls to Data Wealth Funds: The Scholarly Take on Assetization

This podcast is part of The Assetizer, GenTwo's thought leadership platform.

While practitioners like us at GenTwo are busy building the assetization revolution, academics are casting a scientific gaze on how it really works. Professor Kean Birch from York University in Canada is one of the leading voices in this emerging field, having co-edited the foundational academic text on the subject.

What makes this conversation fascinating is how his research sheds light on aspects of our industry we might not fully appreciate. How do national accounting standards drive assetization trends? What can we learn from studying everything from biotech IP to student loan securitization? And what does the concept of "data wealth funds" suggest about the future of collective asset governance?

In this wide-ranging discussion, we explore how academic analysis can inform practitioner innovation.

Key Topics Covered:

  • How intellectual property rights in biotech became Kean's entry point into assetization studies
  • The difference between academic "deconstruction" and practitioner "construction" approaches
  • Four categories of academic assetization research: knowledge (IP, patents), nature (oil wells, natural capital), infrastructure (railways, wind farms), and social assets (student loans, impact bonds)
  • How national accounting standards drive new waves of assetization interest
  • Data as the emerging frontier: different approaches by US, EU, and China
  • Why individual data monetization faces the "$40 problem" but collective approaches show promise
  • The concept of data wealth funds as a governance model
  • Why assetization studies is gaining intellectual traction with 100+ researchers worldwide

About Our Guest:
 

Professor Kean Birch is a leading researcher in the emerging field of assetization studies at York University in Canada. He co-edited the foundational academic text "Assetization: Turning Things into Assets in Technoscientific Capitalism" (MIT Press, 2020) and leads reading groups that now include over 100 researchers studying how things become investible assets. His current research focuses on data assetization and alternative asset classes.
 

Tom Lyons 
Head of Communications, GenTwo

Further reading and viewing: