Neko Health, the medical-scanning startup co-founded by Spotify founder Daniel Ek and Hjalmar Nilsonne, is preparing to open its first US clinic in New York this year, according to The Verge.
The company has raised $700 million from a group that The Verge described as including celebrities, entrepreneurs, and investment firms. Neko plans to use that push to expand quickly across the United States after opening in New York.
Neko runs private clinics built around full-body scans and blood tests. The company says it uses artificial intelligence and medical equipment it built itself to screen customers for possible signs of disease before symptoms become obvious.
The conditions Neko says it is targeting include skin cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. That puts the company in the growing business of preventive screening, where the pitch is that earlier detection can lead to earlier treatment or lifestyle changes. Neko’s stated goal is to catch health problems sooner, prevent disease, and help people live longer.
The mechanics, as described by the company, are straightforward enough: customers go to a clinic, receive imaging-style body scans and blood work, and Neko’s systems analyze the results. The AI is part of the screening workflow, while the custom hardware is part of the company’s attempt to make the scan itself a repeatable clinic product rather than a one-off medical appointment.
The US expansion gives Neko access to a much larger private health market, but it also puts the company’s claims in front of customers, clinicians, and regulators who will want more than founder star power. A full-body scan can sound reassuring, but the value of broad screening depends on what the system detects, how often it misses disease, how often it flags harmless findings, and what happens after a customer gets a result.
For now, the confirmed move is narrower: Neko has new funding, a New York clinic planned for this year, and an ambition to scale the model across the country. Ek and Nilsonne are betting that people will pay for a clinic visit designed to look for trouble before conventional care would usually go looking.
This story draws on original reporting from The Verge.
