I watched a woman walk into a white pod, press a button and emerge twenty minutes later with a printout and a nervous smile. The clinician at the desk said, plainly, “We caught something early.” You feel the room tilt when prevention ceases to be theory and becomes a result you can hold.
I’ll tell you what’s happening, why it matters, and what you should be asking next. You don’t need medical training to spot the pattern: tech money + celebrity capital + fast scans equals a new front in preventive care.
At a Stockholm clinic a crowd waited to try a new pod; investors were already lining up.
Neko Health — the company co-founded by Spotify’s Daniel Ek and neuroscientist Hjalmar Nilsonne — quietly designed a suite of quick full-body exams and opened its first sites in 2023. This week the startup announced a $700 million funding round (≈€640 million), a sum that shifts the story from European experiment to American launch.
That kind of cheque brings attention. Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan signed on alongside Will.i.am, Maria Sharapova, Zoë Saldaña and Alexis Ohanian. Their names aren’t wallpaper; they function as social proof to insurers, regulators and the people who write checks for expansion.
Is Neko Health expanding to the US?
Yes. Neko says clinics will open in New York City and other U.S. cities later this year, and a New York waitlist is live. For you that means the same pod-and-scan routine that’s run in Sweden and the U.K. is coming stateside — with more capital behind rapid rollouts and partnerships.
At the center of the visit is a pod that photographs your skin from head to toe; a clinician walks you through the results.
The most attention-grabbing machine is the Neko Derma device: a pod that captures thousands of high-resolution skin images and runs them through AI models looking for signs of skin cancer and body-composition markers. It feels a little like stepping into a body-sized camera, and that feeling matters — people remember the machine more than the paperwork.
The appointment also mixes conventional tests: blood draw, ECG and blood pressure. Results are processed on-site within minutes, then reviewed by a clinician who offers recommendations and referrals when needed. That human check matters; algorithms without a clinician rarely change behavior.
What is a Neko Health scan?
The scan is an hour-long package of automated imaging, blood chemistry and cardiovascular screening designed to flag early markers for diabetes, heart disease and skin malignancies. Neko positions the product as prevention at scale — faster than a standard annual physical, and packaged for consumers who will pay out of pocket.
A press release landed with celebrity investors listed like a who’s who of influence; money amplifies both promise and scrutiny.
The $700 million round supports a U.S. rollout and ongoing research. It’s part of a larger trend: Function Health raised $298 million (≈€275 million) last year, backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Magic Johnson, Matt Damon and Zac Efron. Even Midjourney has quietly announced work on an underwater ultrasound scanner. Tech and Hollywood are no longer observers — they’re product architects.
That attention accelerates adoption, but it also invites regulatory and press scrutiny. When celebrities and VCs crowd into health, expectations climb and so does skepticism. You should read big funding announcements as both fuel and pressure: fuel to scale, pressure to perform.
A New York waitlist opened; pricing will shape who uses the service.
Neko reports over 350,000 people registered for scans or waitlists and 100,000+ completed exams in Sweden and the U.K. Pricing in markets so far gives a sense of audience: scans cost £299 in the U.K. (≈€350) and 2,750 Swedish kronor in Sweden (≈€240). Neko hasn’t announced U.S. pricing yet.
How much does a Neko Health scan cost?
Expect consumer-pay pricing in the hundreds of euros for direct-to-patient access, with potential variations for employer plans or insurer partnerships. That price point places the product in the premium-prevention category — accessible to many, but not yet universal.
At clinics clinicians review findings and suggest next steps; the question is whether early flags change outcomes.
Clinical review is baked into the workflow: automated scans hand off to a trained clinician who frames results and recommends follow-up. The promise is simple — catch early signals and avoid late-stage disease — but the proof will live in long-term outcomes and how this tech integrates with primary care networks and payers.
If you’re skeptical, you should be. Early detection can reduce harm, but it can also create false positives, anxiety and cascades of tests. I watch this space the way I watch a new safety feature on a car: as if your health had a flight recorder — useful for investigation, priceless if it prevents a crash, risky if it leads to unnecessary maneuvers.
What you can do now: sign up for the New York waitlist if you’re curious, ask your clinician how these scans would fit your care plan, and follow how insurers respond. If Neko and other startups make prevention visible and affordable, the marketplace and the regulators will have the final say — and that will change how we think about routine care. Who benefits most from this money-and-tech moment, and who gets left behind?