Spotify's founder just banked $700M to sell $299 AI body scans—but there's a catch

Neko Health, the preventative health startup from Spotify co-founder Daniel Ek, just secured a massive $700 million Series C to bring its AI-powered full-body scans stateside. The round, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and O.G. Venture Partners, pushes the company’s disclosed funding past $1 billion since 2023, with a celebrity-studded cap table that now includes Mark Zuckerberg, Priscilla Chan, Maria Sharapova, and will.i.am.

The 60-minute, radiation-free assessment combines blood work, proprietary sensors, and more than 2,000 high-resolution skin images. A clinician reviews everything with you on the spot. It’s an undeniably slick package. But before you sign up for the New York waitlist, here’s the part Neko’s glossy marketing omits: the company hasn’t published a comparative study proving this all-in-one approach improves clinical outcomes or is more cost-effective than just getting the same standard tests through your regular doctor. A blood pressure reading and cholesterol panel aren’t exactly medical breakthroughs.

That hasn’t stopped demand. The company says it’s already completed 100,000 scans across eight clinics in the UK and Sweden, where it charges £299 and 2,750 kronor respectively. Over 350,000 people are on waitlists. A striking 75% of customers rebook before they even walk out the door—a metric that sounds impressive but also raises a question about whether annual screening is medically necessary for everyone, or just a brilliant recurring revenue model.

Hjalmar Nilsonne, Neko’s chief executive, says the new capital will fund R&D and U.S. expansion. The FDA cleared two of the company’s devices via the 510(k) pathway in May 2026, so the regulatory path is clear. But scaling a capital-intensive, clinic-based model that requires proprietary hardware, on-site blood processing, and medical staff is a very different beast from building a streaming service. The real test isn’t the tech—it’s whether a $400 wellness scan for the worried wealthy can morph into a genuine mass-market medical device business.