Maria Leiloglou
Enacuity is an Imperial–UCL spinout that delivers the world’s first software-only functional imaging upgrade to existing surgical cameras, improving patient outcomes.
Funding
Funded Award Winner
The problem and opportunity
Anastomotic leaks affect ~10% of colorectal surgeries, causing serious harm, longer stays, and major NHS cost. Patients, surgeons and hospitals bear this risk daily. Current tools like Indocyanine green (ICG) fluorescence lack objective, quantifiable perfusion data and proven outcome evidence, so adoption stays low. Enacuity’s EnGI predicts tissue oxygenation from standard laparoscopic video, giving surgeons real-time, evidence-backed perfusion insight without new hardware.
The solution and innovation
EnGI turns any standard laparoscope into a perfusion-sensing tool, using AI to predict hyperspectral-equivalent tissue oxygenation from ordinary colour video, no new camera hardware required. This is unlike ICG, which needs dye and specialist optics. Our approach is patent-protected, and validated across multiple pre-clinical and clinical use cases, with 15 signed hospital letters of intent (LOIs) and an Innovate UK award funding head-to-head evidence generation against ICG.
Market and ambition
Our beachhead is colorectal and GI surgery, where anastomotic leak drives significant cost and harm across NHS and international hospitals. We have 15 signed hospital LOIs and active studies with Imperial College London and Johns Hopkins University. Over the next 2-3 years we aim to secure UKCA/CE marking, expand into further surgical specialties, and enter the US market.
Founder perspective
I spent years researching advanced surgical imaging, working alongside surgeons who had no way to know if a tissue would heal until it was too late. That gap became Enacuity. As a Women in Innovation awardee, I’m building the tool I wished existed, one that turns surgeons’ judgement into evidence, not guesswork.
Women in Innovation Award
Recipient of the Innovate UK Women in Innovation Award 2025/26, receiving tailored business support, and access to specialist training and networks. View all winners and highly commended applicants from the Women in Innovation cohort 2025/2026.