Dive Brief:

• Neko Health has raised $260 million to expand a preventative healthcare service designed to detect cancers, cardiovascular disease and other conditions.
• The company, which disclosed the Series B financing last week, was co-founded by Spotify CEO Daniel Ek and uses various medical devices to noninvasively check moles, the heart and more. The funding follows Neko’s Series A round in July 2023, where the company raised $65 million.
• Neko currently provides scans for 299 pounds (about $372) from sites in London and Stockholm. The company plans to use the financing to expand in the U.S. and Europe and invest in diagnostics.

Dive Insight:

Neko has brought hardware and software together to create a scan that captures data on various aspects of a person’s health in 15 minutes. Customers undergo the scan and talk to a doctor about the results. In roughly the first year of the service — February 2023 to December 2023 — Neko scanned 2,707 people. Almost 80% of the people were in good health but 6.6% had significant conditions and another 1% received a potentially life-saving intervention.

The ability of the scan to detect significant and life-threatening conditions such as atrial fibrillation and aortic aneurysms is central to Neko’s pitch. The goal is to enable people to stay healthy and move from reactive to proactive care through early detection and preventative measures.

Neko sources most of the devices that underpin that goal from third parties. The company’s website lists 16 medical devices. Neko provides three Class I devices that are used to assess skin, hemoglobin and the movement of pulse waves from the heart to the hands and feet. The other devices, which include a glucose test, pulse oximeter and 12-lead ECG system, are provided by third parties.

Some of the money from the latest financing round, which was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, will support R&D into health diagnostics. Neko is involved in three clinical studies in Sweden that are looking at how Type 1 diabetes affects the vascular system, ways to detect risk of heart failure and how to stop cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases. 

The financing will also support Neko’s international expansion. The company added a site in London last year. Neko said it has performed 10,000 scans across its two sites and 100,000 people are on its waiting list. The global demand has informed Neko’s plan to add capacity in new locations and regions, including the U.S. Neko said it plans to expand “in the coming months.”