Iliad Solutions Leeds secures from NatWest’s IP-backed lending programme to fund international expansion of its payments testing platform, with ambitions to become the number one payment testing company in the world
Leeds-based payments technology firm Iliad Solutions has secured a lending facility from NatWest, structured around the value of the company’s intellectual property rather than physical assets. Iliad Solutions Leeds provides specialist software used by banks, processors, fintechs, and financial institutions to test, certify, and launch payment products before they go live. Its flagship t3 Platform creates virtual testing environments for card systems, real-time payments, open banking, APIs, and emerging digital currency technologies. The NatWest facility will provide working capital to support new international contract wins, including work with an international card issuer, while giving the business headroom to pursue further growth. Founder and CEO Anthony Walton said the funding allows Iliad to focus on growth and execution towards its aim to be the number one payment testing company in the world.
Why This Matters For Leeds
IP-backed lending solves a problem tech companies face: their value sits in software and expertise, not in buildings or machinery that traditional lenders accept as collateral.
How the Funding Works
Under NatWest’s IP-backed lending programme, Iliad’s intellectual property was independently reviewed by Inngot, the bank’s specialist IP valuation partner. NatWest can lend against up to 50 per cent of the orderly disposal value of a company’s intangible assets, including software, data, technology, brands, and know-how. For Iliad, whose core value sits in its t3 Platform and the expertise behind it, this approach provides growth capital that would be difficult to access through conventional lending. Anthony Walton said NatWest understands the business and the value of its IP, and that the facility allows the company to focus on growth rather than fundraising. Ben McMullan, relationship director at NatWest, described Iliad as exactly the kind of high-growth, innovation-led business the lending programme is designed to support.
“For growing companies like Iliad addressing the global payments market we occasionally need capital to maximise our exploitation of new opportunities. NatWest understands our business and the value of our IP. This allows them to back our ambition leaving us to focus on growth and execution.”
— Anthony Walton, Founder and CEO, Iliad Solutions
A Funding Model for Leeds Tech
NatWest has funded £34 million through the IP lending programme nationally, supporting technology companies whose assets are intangible. The programme launched in England and Wales in 2024 and expanded to Scotland in June 2026. For Leeds, where the tech sector has grown 125 per cent over the past decade according to Tech West Yorkshire data, IP-backed lending addresses a structural challenge: high-growth software and fintech companies need capital to scale but lack the physical assets traditional lenders require. Iliad Solutions Leeds joins Assured Data Protection, which secured eight-figure HSBC Growth Lending funding, as another Leeds tech firm accessing innovative mechanisms designed for asset-light businesses. The difference is instructive: Assured used HSBC’s programme backed by recurring revenue, Iliad used NatWest’s programme backed by IP value. Both routes keep equity with the founders.
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- Learn more about Iliad Solutions: https://www.iliad-solutions.com/
