In 2018, when you could stream almost any song you wanted, anytime and anywhere from your iPhone, Spotify founder Daniel Ek believed that people would soon expect the same level of convenience from healthcare. Wearable health trackers like Whoop and Oura had been around for about three years, sparking a data-tracking trend among health-conscious millennials. Ek reached out to a fellow Swedish entrepreneur, Hjalmar Nilsonne, and suggested they start a new company—one that would “rebuild healthcare from scratch.”
Nilsonne, the son of two doctors, had once sworn he’d never work in healthcare, but he came around to the idea. He became Ek’s co-founder and CEO of Neko Health once he realized the problem they wanted to solve was more about behavior than medicine. “Our current healthcare systems are built on reactive care: when something’s wrong, you see a doctor,” says Nilsonne. He notes that 80-90% of patients in the global healthcare system suffer from chronic diseases, which he believes could be prevented if caught early.
Hjalmar Nilsonne (left) and Daniel Ek (right), co-founders of Neko Health.
Photo: Courtesy of Neko
“Why haven’t we been able to offer more preventative care? The ultra-wealthy have access to it—they go to fancy residential clinics that cost thousands of dollars for days of scans. So we asked ourselves: how could we use new technology to provide similar insights, but 10 or 100 times cheaper?” After five years of developing the technology, the pair opened Neko’s first health scan clinic in Stockholm in 2023.
Neko didn’t invent the private health scan category—US-based Prenuvo and Ezra had launched full-body MRI scans about five years earlier. But Neko’s hour-long, AI-powered health check-up offered a faster, more scalable option. At €300, it costs about a tenth of what those competitors charge. Yet the futuristic, mint-green clinics—designed by the same lead architect as Apple’s Fifth Avenue store, Franquibel Lima—make the one-hour scan, using end-to-end proprietary technology, feel luxurious beyond its price.
When you enter a Neko clinic, you’re led to a modern changing room to put on a robe and slippers designed by Scandinavian brand Hay. Then, you strip down to your underwear for a 360-degree, AI-powered skin mapping scan. An AI-generated female voice guides you to turn while it takes over 2,000 photos of every mole and freckle on your skin. A nurse then does a full blood test, ECG, and grip strength test. The results are instantly interpreted by a doctor in a private 30-minute consultation, with a moving 3D visualization of your body on a screen.
Neko’s first UK clinic in London’s Marylebone neighborhood.
Photo: Courtesy of Neko
“Right now, I think we’re in the ‘affordable luxury’ category—we offer something very high quality, but at a price you don’t need to be a finance mogul to afford,” says Nilsonne. “Over time, you’ll see us find ways to make this available to more people who might be priced out today.” Full-body preventative health scans have become a key part of the luxury end of the $6.8 trillion wellness market, and even a status symbol, popularized by celebrities like Kim Kardashian (who credits Prenuvo for finding a small brain aneurysm), Paris Hilton, and Gwyneth Paltrow. The high-tech longevity sector is driving the upper end of the wellness market, as living longer becomes the new luxury marker, and wealthy individuals now spend thousands on clinical-grade diagnostics and treatments.
Neko’s plan to become the go-to affordable scan has two parts. First, after raising $250 million in a Series B funding round at a $1.8 billion valuation…Last January, Nilsonne said Neko is investing heavily in improving its AI models so it can automate more parts of the scan that currently need human input. This should lower the cost of delivering the scan over time. Second, Neko hopes that the data it collects over time from catching diseases early in its patients will encourage employers, insurers, and health systems to partner with and invest in the company in the future. “If we can show that Neko can deliver really high-quality preventive care at a very affordable price, that will be a strong reason for them to work with us,” Nilsonne says.
Breaking into new markets
Neko expanded into the UK in September 2024, opening its first clinic in London’s Maryle neighborhood to test the city’s interest in affordable, unsubsidized preventive healthcare. Even though the UK has a tax-funded public healthcare system, Nilsonne says that when clinic appointments opened in London, they sold out within 10 minutes, and Neko’s waitlist in the UK has stayed around 100,000 ever since. Since launching in the capital, it has increased the number of scans it performs fivefold each year—growth numbers that look more like a business-to-business software company than a consumer-facing one with physical locations. Over the last 18 months, it quickly opened five more clinics across London, Birmingham, and Manchester to “catch up with demand,” according to the CEO.
Neko Health Spitalfields branch.
Photo: Courtesy of Neko
Now, Neko is waiting for regulatory approval to open its first US-based clinic in New York, which was originally planned for spring. Nilsonne hasn’t disclosed the price of Neko’s New York scan, but sources close to the company say it will be around $500 to cover New York doctor salaries and real estate costs. If Neko’s US clinic succeeds, the plan is to expand to other major American cities. But the US preventive healthcare market is much more developed than in Europe and the UK. In an unsubsidized system, consumers have many choices for private full-body health scans and full bio-hacking packages—from Prenuvo and Ezra’s MRI focus on cancer and organ health, to Fountain Life’s full longevity membership with regular MRI, cardiovascular testing, and metabolic screening. Still, Nilsonne believes Neko offers something new to US consumers.
“First, I’m incredibly lucky to have co-founded the company with one of the few European founders who has won a category in the US, with Daniel and Spotify, so we have the right experience on board,” he says. “But we still have to earn it, and I think ultimately healthcare is a trust business.”
Nilsonne says US wellness enthusiasts already regularly fly to London for the Neko scan. “They love it—they’ve done all the American stuff you can imagine, all the MRIs, and they’re looking for something different,” he says. “So we’re pretty confident the product holds up and we’re completely different from the alternatives in the market.”
More data, more customers
Neko’s New York clinic will launch with an expanded set of diagnostic scans included in the same timeframe and price, such as body composition and other metabolic diagnostics similar to a DEXA scan, according to a person familiar with the matter. Neko will also soon launch a health app where customers can integrate data from wearable health trackers like Oura and Whoop to create a year-round health database between scans, the same person said. The US is considered the GLP-1 capital of the world, and US health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said he wants every citizen to use a wearable health tracker to combat high rates of obesity and diabetes. So, moving further into metabolic health would give Neko another particularly relevant feature.For the U.S. market, this is something that current MRI scans don’t offer. “When we combine data from wearables, your doctor won’t just look at your scan results during a check-up—they’ll also see your daily habits, as tracked by your devices, if you choose to share that,” Nilsonne explains. “Metabolic health is one of the three main areas that affect how long and how well we live. So from a medical standpoint, it makes a lot of sense, and it’s also very easy for consumers to track. Plus, it’s something people really care about, especially those focused on longevity and wellness.”
Nilsonne won’t say whether Neko will eventually move into MRI scans, but over the next 18 months, the company plans to keep expanding what its hardware can detect, along with this new software side of the business. The luxury health scan market is often defined by specific niches—like MRI scans focused on cancer detection, or other scans such as Viavi Cortex 360, Preventicum Optimal, and Avenues Reproductive Intelligence Review, which target brain and reproductive health. But Nilsonne wants Neko to keep broadening its health-detection capabilities.
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Neko’s customers range in age from 18 to 88, with an average of 44, and are slightly more male (55%). Like many other tech-driven longevity services, Nilsonne says Neko’s early customers were mostly the biohacking tech bro crowd, but that has since changed—a trend that reflects how longevity is becoming more mainstream. “We’ve been really lucky that the things we focus on have resonated with consumers,” Nilsonne says. “We’re seeing the world move in this direction more than we ever expected—people went from bragging about being at the club with champagne to bragging about ice baths and saunas. And I don’t see any science that suggests this is slowing down. Culturally, longevity is becoming mainstream in a big way, and we want to be a company at the forefront of that.”
Neko is positioning its constantly expanding detection features for its annual health scan, along with an ongoing preventive health hub software component, as its unique selling point. “I think the next five years will really be about: OK, we have all these consumers taking charge of their health—how will that start to connect with the healthcare system? I see Neko’s role as building the bridge for people who care most about their health to get the most out of the entire system.”
Frequently Asked Questions
Here is a list of FAQs about Neko and its goal of becoming the affordable luxury of longevity
Beginner Questions
1 What exactly is Neko
Neko is a health and wellness company that focuses on extending your healthspanthe number of years you live in good healthrather than just your lifespan They use advanced science to slow down aging
2 What does affordable luxury of longevity mean
It means Neko aims to make highend sciencebacked longevity treatments available to more people You get a premium personalized experience but at a price thats more accessible than the ultraexpensive biohacker lifestyle
3 What products or services does Neko offer
Neko primarily offers a subscriptionbased system This includes personalized supplements a mobile app for tracking your health data and access to a health advisor They focus on datadriven supplementation
4 How is Neko different from just buying vitamins at the store
Neko is personalized Instead of a onesizefitsall multivitamin they test your blood to see what your body actually needs They also use higherquality more bioavailable ingredients that are often found in professionalgrade supplements
5 Who is Neko for
Its for people who are proactive about their health are in their 30s to 60s and want to invest in feeling younger for longer Its for someone who wants a concierge level of health guidance without the sixfigure price tag of a private doctor
Advanced Questions
6 How does Neko personalize my supplements
You start with a blood test Neko analyzes over 30 biomarkers related to aging like inflammation organ function and nutrient levels Their algorithm then creates a custom supplement stack to address your specific deficiencies and biological weak spots
7 What does the luxury part actually look like
The luxury comes from the experience and quality Think premium packaging highgrade ingredients a sleek app interface and direct access to a human health coach who explains your results It feels like a highend service not a commodity