Medical AI has a massive data problem that slows down life saving innovations. A Welsh healthtech startup just secured £357,500 to fix this exact bottleneck. Pontiro is taking its proven system from NHS Wales to the rest of the UK.
This fresh capital comes at a critical time for the healthcare sector. Hospitals are desperate for digital tools to cut waiting lists, but they struggle to share patient data safely. Pontiro promises to bridge that gap.
Breaking the Data Bottleneck
Artificial intelligence is hungry for data. To train AI models to spot cancer or fractures in X-rays, developers need millions of images. But hospitals cannot just hand over patient files. They must strip away all private information first. This process is called anonymisation. It is often slow, manual and risky.
Pontiro has automated this entire workflow. Their software sits inside the hospital system and cleans the data automatically. This allows researchers to access the information they need without seeing who the patient is.
The startup has already processed over 2 million medical images across NHS Wales.
This volume proves the system works at scale. It turns a job that took weeks into something that happens almost instantly. The new funding will help them polish this infrastructure. They want to make it the standard for how hospitals and AI companies talk to each other.
The funding round was led by SFC Capital. They were joined by Plug and Play Ventures and the British Business Bank. These are heavy hitters in the early stage investment world. Their backing suggests strong confidence in Pontiro’s solution.
Pontiro medical imaging data security funding news
Built by the NHS for the NHS
One major reason for Pontiro’s success is its origin story. It was not built by outsiders guessing what doctors need. It was built by people who lived the problem.
The company was founded by Evan Jenkins, Adam Shannon and Lewis Bowen. They created the platform to solve their own headaches while working within the healthcare system. They saw firsthand how hard it was to get data ready for research.
Lewis Bowen, Co-founder of Pontiro, explained the unique advantage of their approach.
“Pontiro was built inside the NHS, alongside the teams who use it every day. That matters. With this investment, we’re taking infrastructure that already works at scale in Wales and making it available to trusts across the UK who are navigating the same challenges.”
This inside out approach reduces friction. Hospital IT teams are notoriously cautious about new software. They worry about security holes and system crashes. A tool that already runs smoothly in Welsh health boards is an easier sell to English trusts.
The founders focused on compliance from day one. They built the system to meet the strictest data privacy laws in the UK.
This focus on safety allows hospital leaders to sleep easier. They know they are not risking a data breach by trying to innovate.
Why Investors Bet on Pontiro
The investment landscape for healthtech is competitive right now. Investors are looking for tools that offer immediate value. They want to see operational efficiency. Pontiro fits this bill perfectly.
SFC Capital led the round because they saw a clear path to growth. The problem of data access is universal. Every hospital system in the world faces it. If Pontiro can crack the UK market, the global potential is huge.
Here is why this deal matters right now:
- Speed: AI adoption is moving faster than hospital infrastructure can handle.
- Safety: Data leaks are a massive liability for public health systems.
- Efficiency: Manual data cleaning wastes thousands of hours of skilled staff time.
- Validation: Hospitals need to prove that AI tools actually work before buying them.
Pontiro helps with that last point too. It is not just about training AI. It is about testing it. Hospitals can use the platform to run validation studies. They can check if an AI tool performs as well on their local patients as the vendor claims.
This capability is becoming a requirement. Healthcare leaders now demand evidence of real world impact before signing big contracts.
The Road Ahead for Medical AI
The £357,500 cash injection is not just for keeping the lights on. It is for aggressive expansion. The team plans to move beyond Wales. They are targeting NHS England trusts next.
Discussions are already happening with several organisations. These groups are looking for ways to evaluate new AI tools. Pontiro provides the plumbing to make those evaluations possible.
The company is also working to get on national procurement frameworks. These are approved lists of suppliers for the government. Getting on these lists makes it much easier for hospitals to buy their software. It cuts through the red tape of public sector purchasing.
The founders believe this is just the beginning. As more AI tools enter the market, the need for safe data infrastructure will only grow.
Co-founder Evan Jenkins noted that this funding validates their vision. It proves that the bottleneck they identified is a pain point for everyone. The industry is shifting. It is moving from “can we do AI?” to “how do we do AI safely and quickly?”
Pontiro provides the answer to the “how.” By automating the boring but essential work of data cleaning, they are paving the way for a smarter healthcare system. This investment ensures they have the fuel to keep building that road.
The UK government has made AI in healthcare a priority. They see it as a key way to tackle the massive backlog of patients waiting for care. But high level policy needs ground level tools to work. Pontiro is exactly the kind of nut and bolt innovation that makes the grand vision possible.
As they scale up, the team will face challenges. Every hospital trust operates a bit differently. Their systems are often old and fragmented. But Pontiro has already proven it can handle the complexity of NHS Wales. That experience gives them a fighting chance to succeed across the wider UK network.
The tech creates a safe sandbox for innovation.
This means doctors can experiment with new tools without risking patient trust. In the world of medical data, trust is the most valuable currency of all.
