A Bristol-based firm that has recently opened an office in Glasgow to advise businesses on alternative pension-led funding has rebuffed criticism that its strategies are too risky.

Clifton Asset Management has said the funding model has the potential to provide £100 billion of finance to bank-starved SMEs, and has already helped 1200 firms and secured 10,000 jobs.

It works by using a business owner's self-invested pension to inject money into his company, secured against its independently-valued intellectual property (IP).

Clifton, which employs 100 people and has put 1000 schemes in place, has this month staged seminars in Glasgow and Edinburgh.

But financial planners have expressed doubts over the strategy, with one telling The Herald that he knew of "examples of this type of manoeuvre leaving a Sipp virtually worthless".

The Financial Services Authority had "made it clear that investors should be aware of the pitfalls of such a strategy for their pension", he added.

Adam Tavener, founder and chairman of Clifton, hit back after the company last week shared an "alternative funding" platform at Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce.

He said: "Some of the doomsaying and indignation around this is because it reverses the seemingly inexorable flow of money from people to fund management groups. If we were signing up deals that were clearly inappropriate, we would not be in business."

He added: "Most people don't think there is any IP in their business, they think that only applies to James Dyson, but all we are doing is demonstrating that a business has an intangible value – its goodwill, its branding – and effectively bringing forward a valuation that might only be made when the business was being sold, and using it as a funding tool instead."

Mr Tavener said: "Most of the speakers talked about how IP in a business is being ignored by banks."

He said for many owners it made more sense to "back themselves" and invest £40,000 from their pension into their own business, than to "pay a £40,000 contribution into a fund whilst having a £40,000 overdraft secured on their house".

Clifton did not claim the solution was suitable for everyone, and admitted there were occasional losses, but Mr Tavener said: "If you started out with a £250,000 pension, invested £70,000 in your business, and lost £30,000 of it, fundamentally that is not life-changing. There is a lot of emotion and obfuscation around the word pension – it is your money."