Neko Health, a burgeoning startup co-founded by Spotify’s Daniel Ek and Hjalmar Nilsonne, is set to transform preventative healthcare. The company, which offers comprehensive annual full-body scans and AI-driven insights to detect serious conditions like heart disease and skin cancer, is expanding its services to London, marking its first venture outside of its native Sweden. For a fee of £299, individuals can undergo an hour-long session comprising various scans and tests. These generate millions of data points to assess a person’s health across cardiovascular, metabolic, and other critical areas. A crucial component of the service includes an in-person consultation with a doctor to thoroughly discuss the gathered data. Those eager to experience this proactive approach to health can join the waiting list via their website.
A Glimpse Inside the Neko Clinic
The Neko Clinic in London, much like its Stockholm counterparts, cultivates an understated yet sophisticated ambiance. Upon entering, visitors are greeted by a minimalist lobby featuring pared-down furniture, muted color palettes, and calming electronic music, evoking a blend of an elegant day spa and a cutting-edge medical facility. The discreet street-level entrance, marked subtly by the Neko logo, belies the comprehensive health assessment available below ground.
The process begins with an assistant gathering preliminary information before guiding the client to a private room. Here, clients change into a robe and slippers, with a second assistant then taking height and weight measurements. The core of the assessment involves a cylindrical chamber, equipped with 70 sensors, including numerous cameras, to generate a detailed health profile from approximately 50 million data points. Following this, clients move to an examination bed for additional scans, eye pressure and blood pressure measurements, and a grip strength test. The session concludes with a blood sample collection, the only invasive procedure performed.
Data-Driven Insights for Proactive Health
Neko Health’s philosophy centers on risk identification and proactive prevention rather than the treatment of existing ailments. The collected data is meticulously analyzed and presented in relation to potential health concerns, such as skin cancer, high blood pressure, and metabolic syndrome—a cluster of conditions that can precipitate serious illnesses like heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. Should the results indicate any issues, individuals are promptly referred for further diagnostics and specialized medical consultations.
The company’s name, Neko, is Japanese for “cat,” symbolizing the concept of having multiple lives or fortunate escapes—an aspiration for how users might perceive their health journey with Neko’s assistance.
The Genesis of Neko Health
The inception of Neko Health stemmed from an unexpected digital exchange. In 2018, Daniel Ek reached out to Hjalmar Nilsonne via Twitter direct message, seeking to discuss healthcare solutions. At the time, Nilsonne’s startup, focused on AI-powered smart home energy monitoring, was facing financial difficulties. Ek, having recently guided Spotify through its IPO and amassed significant wealth, was keen on tackling another complex global challenge with a positive societal impact, particularly by reimagining healthcare much like he had transformed music consumption.
Despite neither founder having a medical background, Nilsonne’s family history in medicine and Ek’s persistent enthusiasm fostered their collaboration. They recognized the potential of combining the vast amount of high-quality health data generated by wearable devices like Fitbits and Apple Watches with AI’s analytical capabilities to derive meaningful health conclusions. This vision fueled five years of intensive development, prototyping both the physical clinic infrastructure and the sophisticated software required for data analysis.
Addressing the Preventative Healthcare Gap
Neko Health’s origins in Sweden, a country with a renowned socialized medicine system, might seem counterintuitive for a paid preventative health service. However, the company has experienced remarkable success. Following their $60 million funding announcement, Neko Health garnered a waiting list of thousands, which has since grown to 22,000 individuals eager for their scans. While Daniel Ek’s involvement undoubtedly contributes to this interest, Nilsonne posits that Neko is filling a critical void in the healthcare landscape.
The prevailing healthcare model, including in the UK and Sweden, predominantly focuses on treating illnesses rather than preventing them. This approach is becoming increasingly unsustainable as global populations age, leading to a rise in chronic diseases, which account for a significant portion of healthcare costs. Neko Health’s hypothesis is that prevention and early detection can mitigate many of these issues, as most chronic conditions are preventable or can be significantly delayed with timely interventions.
While other startups are also exploring preventative healthcare technology, such as Zoi in Europe and Aware in Germany, and the UK’s NHS offers a Health Check service, Neko Health differentiates itself. The NHS Health Check, available to individuals aged 44-74 every five years, offers a narrower scope of tests and lacks a doctor’s consultation for results discussion. Nilsonne emphasizes that chronic diseases are increasingly prevalent in individuals under 44—the average age of a Neko customer—underscoring the necessity of a proactive health strategy for early issue identification, intervention, and ongoing monitoring.
