Newport-based healthcare firm Pontiro, which develops platforms for medical image anonymisation and AI evaluation in clinical workflows, has raised £357,500 in a funding round led by SFC Capital, with participation from Plug and Play Ventures and the British Business Bank.
- Pontiro was founded in 2020 by Lewis Bowen, Evan Jenkins, and Adam Shannon to address the challenges of safely and compliantly using medical imaging data for research and AI development in the National Health Service.
- The company develops platforms that anonymise patient data, evaluate AI tools in clinical workflows, and monitor their ongoing performance:
- Its DataScrub Platform removes patient identifiers from medical images and reports while preserving diagnostic information, making data GDPR compliant and ready for research or AI use.
- The AI Assessment Platform measures AI performance in live clinical settings, compares it to baseline metrics, calculates real-world impact, and provides structured decision support.
- A continuous monitoring system is also being developed to track AI effectiveness over time, offering ongoing evidence of clinical value and compliance.
- Pontiro’s platforms have processed over two million medical images across NHS Wales, streamlining workflows, reducing manual effort, and lowering compliance risks.
"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," claims Lewis Bowen, co-founder of Pontiro.
- The company collaborates with NHS Wales, Cardiff University, the National Imaging Academy of Wales, Innovate UK, and other healthcare innovation hubs to ensure its solutions are practical, secure, and effective in clinical environments.
Details of the deal
- Pontiro aims to expand beyond NHS Wales into NHS England trusts and to launch its AI evaluation and ROI measurement platform, helping healthcare organisations measure the real-world impact of AI while scaling its compliant medical imaging infrastructure.
"Pontiro has built proven, compliant infrastructure inside the NHS, processing over two million medical images. Their move into AI evaluation and ROI measurement addresses a real and growing need. We're pleased to back the team as they scale this beyond Wales," explains Adam Beveridge, Principal at SFC Capital.
