Photo credit: Neko Health
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek’s healthcare startup Neko Health has raised $65 million in Series A funding.
The funding round was led by Lakestar, with participation from Atomico and General Catalyst. Daniel Ek founded the company in Sweden in 2018 with Hjalmar Nilsonne. The company promises to help revolutionize healthcare by performing AI-powered full-body scans to help doctors diagnose skin conditions, cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and many other metabolic syndromes.
According to Neko Health, a full-body scan takes about 10 minutes and only costs about $280. After the scan, a personal consultation is planned in which the results will be explained. According to Neko Health, it has 35 doctors, researchers and technicians across Europe. There is also a waiting list for people who want full body scans at the first clinic in Stockholm.
“The Neko Scan is a truly personalized experience that puts you at the center and seamlessly tracks changes over time – so you don’t have to,” Neko adds of its body scanning technology.
“Healthcare costs are spiraling out of control – we believe preventive health will be key to reversing this trend,” adds Hjalmar Nilsonne, CEO of Neko Health. “Physicians today simply do not have enough time or resources to focus on prevention. As a result, many health problems go unnoticed until they become really serious, causing a lot of pain and putting a massive strain on the healthcare system.”
Neko Health has been very coy about its technology, especially given recent healthcare scandals like Theranos. Lakestar and Atomico founders Klaus Hommels and Niklas Zennström will join the Neko board alongside Daniel Ek and Hjalmar Nilsonne.
As for Serie A liftNeko Health plans to use the new cash injection to accelerate its expansion plans, expanding its clinics across Europe and investing in research and development, clinical trials and recruitment.
“Today’s healthcare systems and primary care processes were designed over half a century ago – and have hardly changed since then,” says Daniel Ek about the company. “Additionally, healthcare costs have increased exponentially over the past few decades, and we need to find a way to reverse this trend.”