Daniel Ek’s body-scanning startup Neko Health opens first US office, in New York
Neko Health, the body-scanning health startup co-founded by Spotify boss Daniel Ek, is opening its first US office in New York on 24 September, marking its long-promised expansion into the American market. The move brings the company's scanning technology, which combines proprietary body scans with bloodwork and fitness device data to assess users' health, to a country where a growing number of tech-backed rivals are chasing the same market.
The new office will be based at 300 Lafayette Street in SoHo, and Neko says more than 25,000 New Yorkers have already joined its waitlist. Founded by Ek alongside chief executive Hjalmar Nilsonne, the company previously operated only in the UK and Sweden, and said last month it had carried out 100,000 scans after raising a $700 million Series C funding round. It joins competitors such as Midjourney, which is building its own scanner for a planned San Francisco spa in 2027, Tony Robbins and Peter Diamandis's Fountain Life, and Function Health, which recently secured a $450 million loan from General Catalyst.
- Neko Health opens its first US office in New York on 24 September
- Over 25,000 New Yorkers already on the waitlist
- Joins a crowded field of tech-backed body-scanning health startups
New here? Start with this
Neko Health is a private health company founded by Spotify co-founder Daniel Ek and chief executive Hjalmar Nilsonne. It offers health checks that combine body scans with blood tests and data from fitness devices, aiming to give customers a broader picture of their health.
The company has operated in the UK and Sweden, and its US expansion brings it into a growing market for technology-based health checks. Other companies, including Fountain Life and Function Health, are also offering or developing services in this area.
The model matters because it brings health screening into a consumer market, alongside care provided through traditional health services. How useful these checks are depends on what they can reliably detect and how customers and clinicians use the results.
Both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Preventative health screening through advanced body scanning represents a valuable medical advancement, enabling individuals to detect potential health risks earlier and facilitating timely intervention that can improve outcomes. Neko Health's American expansion increases consumer access to innovative health monitoring technology, fosters market competition that drives medical progress, and creates economic opportunity whilst empowering individuals to better understand their health.
The case against
The expansion of health-tech scanning services raises legitimate concerns about data privacy and security when collecting intimate bodily and health information, particularly given venture-capital structures that may prioritise profit over patient interests. Critics also note that expensive preventative screening is disproportionately accessible to affluent consumers only, risks unnecessary medicalisation of healthy individuals, and lacks robust clinical evidence demonstrating its superiority over established healthcare practices.
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