Doc Abode Leeds secures NatWest growth loan as NHS-referenced healthtech platform prepares national expansion

Horsforth-based healthtech company Doc Abode has secured growth funding through NatWest’s High Growth IP-backed loan. The non-dilutive funding will support the company’s national expansion, backing implementation capacity, customer success, and continued product development as it scales across NHS trusts. Doc Abode was founded in 2016 by Dr Taz Aldawoud, a GP and University of Leeds medical graduate who also served as Chief Clinical Information Officer at West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board.

What the Platform Does

Doc Abode Leeds provides what its founder describes as an ‘air traffic controller for urgent and community care’ — a platform that gives NHS teams real-time visibility of workforce capacity and demand, and coordinates the allocation of clinicians to patients across hub and field-based settings. The technology was prototyped in Leeds and Huddersfield with West Yorkshire GP out-of-hours provider Local Care Direct. It has since been awarded £499,971 through the NHS Accelerated Access Collaborative’s SBRI Healthcare Phase 3 urgent and emergency care competition.

The results from NHS trusts using the platform are significant. NHS England referenced the North Central London programme’s scaling of Doc Abode in its March 2025 good-practice guidance on standardising community health services. The Health Innovation Network’s national case study reported a 120% increase in patient visits per shift and the elimination of agency spend at participating trusts. UCLPartners has been commissioned to undertake an independent evaluation across multiple NHS trusts.

“As a GP, I’ve seen the human cost of poor coordination — not because teams aren’t working hard, but because the system can’t see and use capacity when it matters most. This funding accelerates our ability to scale a better way of working, giving clinical teams real-time control of their day.”

— Dr Taz Aldawoud, Founder and CEO, Doc Abode

Why this matters for Leeds

Doc Abode is a Leeds healthtech success story that has followed the textbook path from university spinout territory to national NHS adoption. Founded by a University of Leeds medical graduate, prototyped in Leeds and Huddersfield, supported by Yorkshire and Humber AHSN, and now referenced in NHS England national guidance. The NatWest IP-backed loan is a funding model more Leeds tech companies should know about — it uses software IP as collateral without diluting the founder’s equity. For Leeds’ growing health tech cluster, Doc Abode’s scaling journey shows what’s possible when clinical expertise meets the right innovation infrastructure.