Zuckerberg, Sharapova, and will.i.am finance this healthcare startup founded by Spotify's CEO
Born from an idea by Hjalmar Nilsonne and Daniel Ek, the latter being the CEO of the company behind the largest music streaming platform, Spotify, Neko Health is a decidedly ambitious startup engaged in the health sector, and more specifically, specialized in prevention.
In recent hours, the company secured a massive funding of $700 million that should enable it to accelerate its expansion in the United States, with the opening of its first clinic in New York and then expanding to other U.S. cities.
The company develops a model of preventive medicine that combines full-body scans, blood analysis, artificial intelligence, and internally designed medical equipment. The goal is to identify potential signals associated with conditions such as skin cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes in advance, thus promoting timely interventions before symptoms appear.
According to what co-founder and CEO Hjalmar Nilsonne stated, the new capital will serve both to bring the service to the United States and to fund further research and development activities. The company aims to perfect its technologies with the goal of making large-scale health prevention increasingly accessible.
After years spent away from the spotlight, Neko Health began its public activities in 2023 and today operates eight clinics distributed between the UK and Sweden, including four locations in London and two in Stockholm. Currently, the cost of a full-body scan is £299 in the UK and 2,750 Swedish crowns in Sweden. The company has yet to announce the price of the service in the United States.
However, demand for the service continues to grow rapidly. According to data released by the company, over 350,000 people have registered or joined the waiting list to undergo a scan, while about 100,000 customers have already completed the screening process.
On the other hand, more and more companies engaged in very different sectors are eyeing the medical field, which is evidently becoming an increasingly profitable business, especially with the support of new technologies. Exactly a month ago, we reported in our pages the foundation of Midjourney Medical, the new division of the company known for generating AI images.
The investment round involved numerous prominent names. Among the new investors are Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, musician will.i.am, tennis player Maria Sharapova, and former footballer Thierry Henry. Among the already existing investors are also Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit, and actress Zoë Saldaña.
The company has not disclosed the updated valuation following the funding. According to sources cited by the Financial Times, the value of Neko Health is estimated at around $7 billion, following a previous capital increase of $260 million obtained in early 2025. Thus, the expansion into the United States represents the next step for a company aiming to extend its model of AI-supported preventive medical screening to an increasing number of patients.