Key Notes
- Neko Health, the AI powered preventive health scanning startup cofounded by Spotify's Daniel Ek, opened its first US clinic in New York's.
- It uses a 360 degree scanner and self learning AI system to analyze tens of millions of data points per 499 dollar scan.
- The company closed a 700 million dollar Series C round at roughly a 7 billion dollar valuation and plans further US clinics in Miami, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.
Neko Health, the AI powered full body scanning startup cofounded by Spotify’s Daniel Ek, has opened its first United States clinic in New York City’s SoHo neighborhood, marking the company’s entry into the American market after building a base of clinics across Europe.
A Clinic Designed to Feel Nothing Like a Doctor’s Office
According to Fast Company, Neko has made the design of its clinics as central to its pitch as the scanning technology itself, aiming to replace the cluttered, reactive feel of a typical medical office with something closer to a high end spa or fashion boutique.
The New York clinic uses gently lit rooms, soft pastel accents, and spare white walls, with a brushed steel stairwell leading down from a street level entrance into a plush waiting area lit by backlit, cloudlike wall coverings.
The clinic’s design was led by Franquibel Lima, an architect and former global head of design studios at WeWork, who has also worked on Neko’s clinics in Stockholm, London, and Manchester. Lima said the company’s core bet is that shifting healthcare from reactive treatment to proactive prevention requires a real mindset shift, one he believes starts with how a space makes a visitor feel before any scan even begins.
Visitors move from the waiting area into an all white clinical space where six scanning rooms are lit with a calming pastel yellow glow that Lima described as a deliberate part of preparing people to engage with information about their own health.
AI Powered Scans at The Core
Neko’s underlying technology has been consistently described by the company as an AI powered system: a 360 degree scanner fitted with dozens of sensors collects tens of millions of data points on a person’s skin, heart, blood vessels, and circulation in a single sitting, which a self learning AI system then analyzes to flag potential issues such as irregular moles, cardiovascular risk factors, or early signs of metabolic disease for review by a doctor.
Each scan costs 499 dollars and is radiation free, positioning Neko as a premium, consumer facing complement to traditional primary care rather than a replacement for it.
The company has performed more than 100,000 scans since opening its first clinic in Stockholm in 2023, expanding since then to cities including London and Manchester before this week’s New York opening. Neko has said it plans to open additional US clinics in Miami, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. as it builds out its American presence, entering a consumer tech market where AI driven personal health tools are drawing growing investor and public interest.
A Well Funded Bet on Preventive Care
Neko recently closed a 700 million dollar Series C funding round, pushing the company’s valuation to roughly 7 billion dollars, a step up of about four times from its Series B round less than two years earlier, part of a broader wave of startup investment flowing into companies that pair AI analysis with consumer facing health products.
The round underscores investor appetite for AI augmented preventive health screening as a consumer category, even as the clinical value of routine, AI driven full body scanning for healthy, asymptomatic people remains a subject of ongoing debate among physicians, some of whom caution that broad screening can generate false positives and unnecessary follow up procedures without corresponding evidence of improved long term outcomes.
Betting On Consumers, Not Policy, to Drive Change
Lima said Neko’s strategy rests on the belief that consumers, rather than policy changes, are what typically drive shifts in how an industry operates, and that building spaces people want to return to repeatedly is central to that approach.
Neko has not disclosed how many of its facilities operate at a profit, how its pricing might change as it scales across the more fragmented and heavily regulated US healthcare system, or how it plans to handle insurance and regulatory requirements that differ significantly from those in its existing European markets.
Entering a More Complicated Market
The US launch puts Neko into a healthcare system with different regulatory oversight, insurance dynamics, and liability exposure than the national health systems it has operated alongside in Sweden and the United Kingdom, and where AI driven diagnostic claims can draw closer scrutiny from regulators such as the Food and Drug Administration depending on how a company frames what its software is doing.
Neko has generally positioned its AI analysis as a screening and information tool used alongside a licensed physician’s review, a framing similar to the approach other AI health scanning and imaging startups have taken to avoid classification as a standalone diagnostic device.
Neko’s expansion also arrives as a wider field of AI assisted screening and imaging startups compete for a similar segment of health conscious, self pay consumers, from AI enhanced MRI and radiology platforms to wearable and at home diagnostic tools, all pitching some version of earlier detection through AI analysis of health data most people do not currently have easy access to outside of a hospital visit.
Disclaimer: AIstify is an independent media brand owned and operated by NuvexMedia LLC, publishing news, research, and insights on artificial intelligence, emerging technologies, automation, and related industries. NuvexMedia LLC invests in and collaborates with companies across the AI, technology, software, and digital innovation sectors. These relationships do not influence AIstify’s editorial coverage, and the publication maintains full editorial independence to provide accurate, timely, and objective information. © 2026 NuvexMedia LLC. All rights reserved. This content is for informational purposes only and should not be considered legal, tax, investment, financial, or other professional advice.
