Neko Health raises $700 million to expand AI body scans in the US

Neko Health has raised $700 million to expand its AI body scans in the United States, beginning with a clinic in New York. The firm’s preventive screening service combines medical imaging, blood exams, proprietary sensors, and clinician evaluate.

The Series C spherical was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and co-led by O.G. Venture Partners. Existing buyers Atomico, General Catalyst, and Lakestar participated, alongside new backers together with Liberty City Ventures, Positive Sum, and BDT & MSD.

David Ofer of O.G. Venture Partners will be a part of Neko’s board, topic to regulatory approval.

The newest spherical brings Neko’s disclosed funding since 2023 to greater than $1 billion. The firm raised $65 million in a Series A spherical in 2023 and one other $260 million in January 2025.

The spherical additionally included investments from Meta chief govt Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, former tennis participant Maria Sharapova, musician will.i.am, and former footballer Thierry Henry. Existing particular person buyers embody Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and actor Zoë Saldaña.

How Neko Health’s AI body scans work

Neko operates clinics that mix full-body scans, blood exams, synthetic intelligence, and custom-built medical tools. The service screens clients for potential indicators of situations together with pores and skin most cancers, heart problems, and diabetes.

The firm describes the service as a 60-minute, non-invasive, and radiation-free well being evaluation. It makes use of proprietary sensors and blood evaluation to look at pores and skin situations, blood abnormalities, pre-diabetes indicators, and threat components related to metabolic syndrome, stroke, and coronary heart assault.

The scan additionally consists of an electrocardiogram, arterial measurements, body-composition evaluation, and greater than 2,000 high-resolution photos used to map a buyer’s pores and skin. Blood samples are processed at the clinic, permitting the outcomes to be reviewed throughout the similar go to.

Results are mentioned throughout an in-person session with a medical skilled.

Many of the measurements, together with blood stress, blood glucose, ldl cholesterol, electrocardiogram knowledge, and pores and skin assessments, are already out there by way of standard healthcare providers. Neko’s mannequin combines them with proprietary imaging, automated knowledge assortment, on-site blood processing, and a clinician session in one appointment.

The firm’s public medical supplies reviewed for this text don’t embody a comparative research exhibiting whether or not this mixed strategy improves medical outcomes or cost-effectiveness in contrast with established preventive-care pathways.

Neko stated the funding will help the opening of clinics in New York and different US cities. It has not recognized the further places or supplied an in depth enlargement schedule.

A waitlist for the New York clinic is open on the firm’s web site. Neko has not disclosed how a lot its US scans will price.

The firm presently operates eight clinics throughout the UK and Sweden, together with two in Stockholm, one every in Manchester and Birmingham, and 4 in London: Marylebone, Spitalfields, Covent Garden, and Victoria.

A scan prices £299 in the UK and a pair of,750 Swedish kronor in Sweden, equal to about $400 and $285.

Neko stated it has accomplished 100,000 scans since launching its service in 2023. More than 350,000 individuals have registered for a scan or joined its waitlists.

According to the firm, 75% of consumers ebook and prepay for an additional scan at the finish of their appointment.

The repeat-booking mannequin permits clinicians to evaluate measurements and pores and skin photos over time. Public data reviewed for this text doesn’t embody proof establishing whether or not annual screening is the applicable interval for each age or threat group.

Founded in 2018 by Spotify co-founder Daniel Ek and chief govt Hjalmar Nilsonne, Neko operated largely outdoors public view till launching its service in 2023.

Nilsonne stated a part of the new capital will fund additional analysis and growth into preventive screening expertise.

Neko not too long ago added body-composition measurements and clinician critiques of wearable-device knowledge throughout its clinics. It has additionally launched up to date variations of its Derma, Echo, and Spectrum medical units, which accumulate data relating to pores and skin, coronary heart perform, and circulation.

The firm stated the newer tools captures a bigger quantity of well being knowledge and automates extra components of the scanning course of. It plans to deploy the units throughout its clinics in the coming months.

The clinic-based mannequin requires proprietary tools, blood-processing capability, medical personnel, and specialist evaluate for some findings. Neko stated its seven-room Covent Garden clinic was designed to help tens of hundreds of scans yearly, nevertheless it has not disclosed capability or staffing figures for its deliberate US places.

US regulation and entry

FDA data present that two of Neko’s internally developed units obtained clearance by way of the company’s 510(ok) pathway in May 2026. Derma-2 was cleared as an adjunctive telethermographic system, whereas Spectrum-2 was cleared as a tissue-saturation oximeter used in cardiovascular measurements.

The clearances apply to the specified units and their supposed makes use of, moderately than to the full Neko Health Scan as a single FDA-approved screening service.

Neko describes its US clinics as preventive well being and wellness suppliers moderately than full-service medical practices. Its privateness discover advises clients to proceed seeing their current clinicians for diagnoses and remedy, together with for situations recognized by way of a Neko scan.

The firm says specialist clinicians, together with dermatologists and cardiologists, evaluate findings that require additional examination. Follow-up appointments, referral letters, and introductions to outdoors specialists are included when advisable by a Neko clinician.

Neko’s US clinics don’t presently take part in medical insurance plans, and the firm says most of its providers should not lined by a payer. Customers are subsequently anticipated to pay instantly for the preliminary evaluation.

The firm has not disclosed what clients would pay for diagnostic exams or remedy delivered by exterior healthcare suppliers. It has additionally not introduced its US worth or whether or not employers, insurers, or different organisations will subsidise entry to the service.

Questions over medical proof

Publicly out there data reviewed for this text doesn’t embody a accomplished peer-reviewed research validating the full screening service. A research registered on ClinicalTrials.gov is evaluating the suitability of Neko’s multimodal skin-imaging expertise for screening and diagnostic-support functions, together with pores and skin most cancers and Raynaud’s phenomenon.

The trial stays an ongoing analysis and doesn’t set up the medical efficiency of the full Neko Health Scan.

Neko’s public supplies reviewed for this text don’t disclose how typically its scans produce false-positive findings, what number of clients endure further procedures, or what number of flagged abnormalities are later thought-about clinically unimportant.

The firm’s US privateness discover identifies an AI dictation system used to summarise medical data, questionnaires, scan knowledge, and medical conversations, and to draft studies. Neko says clinicians evaluate studies produced utilizing the system.

Public data doesn’t present a whole breakdown of which scan measurements or classifications depend on AI, standard software program, or direct medical evaluation. It additionally doesn’t state that AI independently diagnoses the situations lined by the service.

The FDA clearances for particular person units don’t set up the efficiency of each algorithm used to mix or interpret the ensuing knowledge. Public supplies reviewed for this text don’t embody detailed real-world efficiency figures for every AI system used in the screening course of.

Neko’s reported health-outcome knowledge is predicated on 1,469 clients who accomplished a second scan roughly one 12 months after their first. The firm stated the group recorded enhancements in blood stress, ldl cholesterol, and blood sugar, whereas body weight remained broadly steady.

The scans in the evaluation have been performed at Neko’s Stockholm clinics. The firm divided the outcomes right into a basic group, a wholesome group, and teams overlaying clients with hypertension, pre-diabetes, or diabetes.

Neko stated the evaluation was not a scientific research and didn’t embody a management group. Customers might have began remedy or modified their behaviour between appointments, so the figures don’t set up that the scans prompted the reported enhancements.

The evaluation solely lined clients who returned for a second privately bought scan. Neko didn’t publish demographic data exhibiting how that group compares with its wider buyer base or the basic inhabitants.

The firm didn’t disclose its valuation following the newest spherical. The Financial Times, citing unnamed sources, reported that Neko is now valued at about $7 billion.

(Photo by Wonderlane)

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