Propel Healthtech Nexus Leeds Launches 30-Company Cohort

Propel Healthtech Nexus Leeds welcomes 30 health tech companies to its second accelerator cohort, backed by £4.5m from the West Yorkshire Investment Zone

Thirty health technology companies have joined the second cohort of the Propel Healthtech accelerator, launched at Propel Healthtech Nexus Leeds on 30 April with £4.5 million of backing from the West Yorkshire Combined Authority via the UK Government’s Investment Zone. The six-month programme, run by Health Innovation Yorkshire and Humber, received a record number of applications and has split the new cohort evenly across start-up and scale-up pathways. The companies are working across artificial intelligence, mental health, and patient pathway transformation, areas where the NHS is under the most pressure to innovate.

Why This Matters For Leeds

This is the clear evidence that Leeds is a serious health innovation cluster. The £4.5 million Investment Zone funding, the Nexus campus location, and the 30-company cohort all point to a deliberate ecosystem being constructed around the city’s health tech strengths. For Leeds businesses working in or adjacent to the NHS, Propel is both a competitor pipeline and a potential collaboration opportunity.

What the Programme Offers Innovators

The programme provides a six-month package of tailored support, expert guidance, and access to a regional and national network designed to accelerate the journey from innovation to real-world NHS adoption. Innovators receive masterclasses, workshops, events, and one-to-one mentoring alongside access to Propel’s 24 partner organisations. These partners span legal, marketing, innovation, commissioning, and routes into the NHS, with support tailored to where each company sits on its growth journey. Christine Outram MBE, chair of Health Innovation Yorkshire and Humber, said Propel has become one of the region’s leading health innovation accelerator programmes, with alumni gaining recognition regionally, nationally, and internationally.

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“”Propel has become one of our region’s leading health innovation accelerator programmes. What really sets it apart is the depth of support around innovators, drawing on expertise across legal, marketing, innovation, commissioning and routes into the NHS, and crucially, tailoring that support to where companies are on their journey.””

— Christine Outram MBE, Chair, Health Innovation Yorkshire and Humber

Leeds’ Growing Health Innovation Ecosystem

The Propel Healthtech Nexus Leeds cohort sits within a rapidly growing health innovation infrastructure in the city. The £2 million Health Innovation Leeds Incubator, launched in November 2025 and led by Nexus at the University of Leeds with Leeds Beckett University and Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, provides a broader support framework for health tech businesses in the region. Both programmes are funded through the West Yorkshire Investment Zone, part of a £160 million regional commitment to health technology. Nexus itself, which hosted the Propel launch event, continues to position itself as the physical hub for this cluster. For companies like Envoke and Promni Health, which are already scaling nationally from Leeds, the growing ecosystem provides a talent pipeline and collaboration network that strengthens the city’s proposition as a base for health tech businesses.