Swedish Health-Tech Startup Neko Health Raises $260 Million, Reaching Unicorn Status

The Swedish startup Neko Health has raised $260 million in funding during a Series B round, reaching a 1.8 billion valuation and earning unicorn status.

The preventative healthcare technology company—founded in 2018 by Spotify’s CEO Daniel Ek and Hjalmar Nilsonne—launched a body scan service in February 2023. Since then, they have performed over 10,000 scans across London and Stockholm. The service, priced at £299—around $368—, detects anomalies to help prevent diseases and provides a comprehensive health check.

In a press release, Neko Health said the demand for its services is high, and that they have over 100,000 requests on a waiting list. The funding round, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, provided new investment for the health-tech company to expand across Europe and the United States.

“We’re at the beginning of a big shift of the healthcare market, from reactive to proactive, driven both by technological advancements and growing consumer demand, said Hjalmar Nilsonne, CEO and Co-Founder of Neko Health. “In the coming years, Neko will continue to bring incredible innovations to the market to find and prevent disease before it has a chance to develop.”

Neko Health’s body scans analyze skin, moles in the body, heart, and arterial tree, and combine the technology with blood tests—including cholesterol, LDL, hemoglobin, high-sensitivity CRP, and more— and a doctor’s consultation.

Other health tech companies have revealed significant developments in the past few months. The American company Hippocratic AI recently raised $141 million and reached unicorn status a few days ago, and the UK-based health-tech startup Doccla recently raised £35m—$46 million—during a series B round to expand its virtual hospital service.