We’re proud to share that Pontiro, a graduate of the Cyber Innovation Hub’s Venture Building Programme, has secured £350,000 in seed funding from SFC Capital and Plug and Play Ventures. It’s a milestone that marks both the momentum of an exceptional Welsh cyberhealth venture and the impact of our Venture Building Programme designed to build ventures with clear, validated product–market fit and make ventures genuinely investor ready. 

Pontiro is tackling a critical challenge in healthcare: how to share clinical images and medical data quickly, safely and at scale. In early NHS Wales pilots, their platform delivered a 98% reduction in anonymisation time and 99.9% accuracy in removing personal identifiers, transforming a slow, manual, high risk process into something secure, compliant and efficient. 

This is the kind of breakthrough investors are backing: cybersecure technology built around a real critical infrastructure problem, validated in the environment where it needs to work, and shaped by the people who use it. 

From real NHS challenge to funded cyberhealth venture 

Instead of starting with a product idea, Pontiro started with domain truth – a challenge raised directly by NHS Wales and life sciences partners: anonymising clinical images was too slow, too manual, and too risky to support the growing demand for AI ready data. Through the Cyber Innovation Hub, that challenge became the starting point for a venture grounded in reality.

We brought together clinicians, cyber specialists, health data scientists, and researchers in anonymisation and encryption to shape what a viable, secure solution needed to look like. Pontiro emerged from that collaboration – designed from day one with security, clinical safety and workflow compatibility at its core. 

Prof Pete Burnap, Director of the Cyber Innovation Hub, said:

“Pontiro shows what’s possible when real world digital challenges are matched with deep domain expertise and early access to the right networks. By helping founders validate demand, strengthen IP and connect with industry and investors, we support ventures to move faster from idea to impact.”

Rebecca Evans MS, Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning, Welsh Government, said:

Kellie Beirne, Chief Executive, Cardiff Capital Region, added:

“This is a great example of innovation that delivers on both fronts: improving how healthcare data can be used safely, while building a scalable Welsh business with global potential. What sets the Venture Building Programme apart is the way it connects founders to real industry partners, customers and investors early. Pontiro’s journey is exactly the kind of progress we want to see coming out of Cardiff Capital Region.”

Built to be investor ready 

The Cyber Innovation Hub’s Venture Building Programme, delivered in collaboration with the Alactrity Foundation and Cardiff University is designed to strengthen the three things investors look for most: deep domain expertise, demonstrable product–market fit with clear value proposition, and an investable team. Alongside a monthly stipend, expert mentoring, and access to cyber testbeds, the Venture Building Programme supported the team with: 

• Structured venture design and product-market fit testing 

• Access to cyber, data protection and regulatory experts 

• NHS engagement and buyer validation 

• Investor introductions and pitch preparation 

The funding now secured will support the next phase of product development, customer growth, and commercial scaling, as Pontiro responds to increasing demand for secure, compliant data sharing in healthcare. 

As Caroline Parker, National Imaging Academy Wales, noted: 

“This product has the power to open new safe avenues for research in the NHS, particularly in radiology.” 

Pontiro’s journey captures what the Cyber Innovation Hub set out to do: build ventures that can thrive in complex, high trust environments by combining domain insight, cyber expertise, and early real-world validation. 

Lewis Bowen, Chief Executive Officer at Pontiro, said:

“This investment is a major step forward for Pontiro. From the very start, our focus has been on removing the data barriers that slow down healthcare innovation and take time away from patient care. The support we’ve received through the Venture Building Programme helped us validate the problem, strengthen our solution and build something that meets the realities of NHS environments. This funding allows us to scale our impact and bring those benefits to more organisations.”

Adam Beveridge, Principal at SFC Capital said:

“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.” 

It’s proof that when you start with a real problem, bring the right people into the room, and build with security from day one, investment follows. 

Explore the CIH Venture Building Programme 

If you’re a founder, technologist, researcher, or cyber domain expert with an idea that could protect systems, people or data, the CIH Venture Building Programme is designed to help you turn it into something investable and impactful. 

We’ll match your idea with the team, expertise, and real‑world validation it needs. 

With a monthly stipend, expert mentoring, and access to cyber testbeds, you’ll spend 12 months building a venture that stands up in the real world. 

If you’ve got a cyber idea with potential, let’s make it a reality. 

Bring us a challenge 

We work with industry, infrastructure leaders, and government to uncover the critical cyber and data problems worth solving. 

If you have a challenge holding your organisation back, we can help turn it into a venture opportunity. 

We’ll work with you to shape it into a clear venture brief, find the right people to solve it, and commercialise the solution through our Venture Building Programme.