Daniel Ek isn’t just streaming music anymore.
His startup, Neko Health. It’s moving to the US. They raised $700 million. A lot of money. From celebrities and VCs and tech bosses. They are bringing their body-scanning clinics across the Atlantic. First stop is New York. Then probably everywhere else. Fast.
The Scan
Here’s how it works. You walk into a private clinic. You get scanned. Head to toe. AI looks at you. Blood tests. Custom equipment built specifically for this. They call it preventive. They want to catch skin cancer or heart disease before it kills you.
Diabetes too. The idea is simple. Stop the disease. Start earlier. Live longer.
CEO Hjalmar Nilsson calls it a mission.
We’re bringing this mission to the US for the first.
He said they are starting in New York this year. Other cities maybe? Who knows. The timeline is vague. There’s a waitlist open now. That’s about it. The cash will also go to R&D. They want scale. Mass prevention. Sounds nice until you realize who pays for it.
Who Cares
This is part of that whole biohacking wave. Longevity obsessed folks. People who think the regular healthcare system is broken because it only fixes things after you’re already dying. Neko fits right in. Founded in 2018. Quiet until 2023. Now loud.
They already have eight clinics. London has four. Stockholm has two. The rest are split. In the UK a scan is £299. In Sweden it’s 2750 kronor. That’s roughly $400 there. $285 there.
Prices in the US? They haven’t said.
Demand is high. Supply isn’t. More than 350.000 people are on a waitlist or signed up. Only 100.000 have actually been scanned. Bottlenecks are real. They can’t keep up.
The Checkbook
Who gave them the money?
Will.i.am. Maria Sharapova. Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan. Thierry Henry. The investor list is basically a Hollywood red carpet mixed with Silicon Valley. Reddit’s Alexis Ohanian is there too. So is Zoe Saldaña.
What’s it all worth? The Financial Times says about $7 billion. No confirmation from the company though. Just rumors. They raised $260 million earlier this year too.
Money is flowing in. Questions are piling up. Can private screening ever reach everyone. Or just those with extra cash.
We’ll see when the New York doors open. Until then. The waitlist grows.
