Building Trust in Healthcare AI: Alacrity UK Start-Up Wins Innovate UK Grant
November 3, 2025
ALACRITY UK – Funding and scaling technology startups • alacrityfoundation.co.uk
We are delighted to share that Pontiro, an Alacrity Foundation UK graduate, has been awarded an Innovate UK Growth Catalyst for Early-Stage Startups grant under the Artificial Intelligence category.
The program backs high-potential startups developing foundational technologies in areas like AI, with an emphasis on trusted and responsible innovation. This award is a strong recognition of Pontiro’s mission to improve how health systems and innovators collaborate around sensitive healthcare data.
Founded by Evan Jenkins, Adam Shannon, and Lewis Bowen during their time in the Alacrity UK incubator, Pontiro develops privacy-first tools that help healthcare organizations securely share medical data. Their technology automates the anonymization of medical images and clinical reports through encryption and data masking, making it possible for researchers and collaborators to use rich datasets without compromising privacy or regulatory compliance.
With this support from Innovate UK, the team will expand their work on secure infrastructure to enable safe and scalable AI innovation in healthcare, building on their platform and experience working with the NHS in Wales. As part of this next phase, the team are actively exploring opportunities to collaborate with healthcare partners and organizations interested in advancing privacy-preserving AI and data sharing.
Co-Founder Evan Jenkins explains, “We’re excited to be supported by Innovate UK to take the next step on our journey. This grant allows us to explore new infrastructure that supports safe, secure, and responsible AI innovation in healthcare, a space that urgently needs practical, trusted solutions.”
We’re proud to see the team’s progress and are excited to follow their next chapter as part of the growing Alacrity network.
Visit pontiro.com to learn more.