Two weeks after opening its first U.S. clinic in SoHo, Neko Health says 50,000 people are now on its New York waitlist, roughly double the 25,000 who signed up before its doors opened in September. The preventive health company, co-founded by Spotify founder Daniel Ek and Hjalmar Nilsonne, is already planning a second Manhattan location.
That clinic will open at Brookfield Place in Battery Park in January 2027, a Neko spokesperson wrote in a statement to AMNY. Clinics in Miami, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco are also planned. Neko opened at 300 Lafayette Street on Sept. 24, following a $700 million Series C funding round. More than 100,000 people have already been scanned at its clinics in Europe.
“New York is a natural place to begin,” the spokesperson said. “New Yorkers place an incredible value on their time and have exceptionally high expectations for how they spend it.”
What the $499 scan involves
The Neko Health Scan costs $499 and takes about an hour. It uses no radiation.
Roughly half the visit is the scan itself. A 360-degree skin exam captures some 6,000 images using both standard and thermal cameras. Members also get a cardiovascular assessment, a body composition analysis and an on-site blood test covering more than 50 biomarkers.
The rest of the hour is spent with a clinician going over the results. “Every member has a face-to-face consultation with a licensed Neko provider who reviews their results,” said Dr. Sunita Mishra, Neko’s chief medical officer, in a statement to AMNY.
Results stay in the Neko Health app for iOS and Android, which tracks changes between scans. It can also pull in daily data from wearables like Oura and Whoop through Apple Health.
The company says members tend to come back. According to Neko, 75 percent book and prepay for a second scan at the end of their first visit, and 80 percent book a third after their second.
What Neko says it’s finding
Neko recently released three years of data covering more than 80,000 members in the U.K. and Sweden, including thousands who returned for repeat scans.
About 4 percent of members had a significant condition that needed medical treatment, Mishra said. Most people came in without a known problem. Among returning members, 82 percent had no previous cardiometabolic diagnosis and weren’t on related medication at their first scan, yet nearly half of that group had at least one marker outside the healthy range.
Neko also reports that members change their habits. About 26 percent of smokers said they had quit by their second scan. Among those who quit, average “heart age” fell by 30.7 months; among those who kept smoking, it rose by 9.7 months.
“The promise of prevention isn’t just finding something early,” Mishra said. “It’s giving people information they can actually use to change the trajectory of their health.”
The overdiagnosis question
Some doctors caution that scanning people who feel healthy can lead to overdiagnosis, false alarms, unnecessary follow-up tests and anxiety.
“It’s a fair concern, but at Neko everything we test for is actionable,” Mishra said. “We don’t collect information we can’t act on.”
She said every result comes with an in-person consultation, and that Neko has built follow-up and in-house specialist review processes meant to cut down on false positives and unnecessary referrals.
When something needs a closer look, Neko’s in-house cardiologists and dermatologists review it first. The company can do follow-up tests like echocardiograms and skin checks on site.
If a member needs outside care, Neko refers them through a network that in New York includes Columbia University Irving Medical Center, Mount Sinai Health System and Schweiger Dermatology. With the member’s consent, Neko can also send the findings to their own doctor, along with a referral letter.
Not a replacement for a physical
Mishra said Neko isn’t meant to stand in for a primary care doctor. In fact, she said, many members don’t have one, and Neko can help connect them.
“We believe Neko is complementary to a PCP,” she said.
The scan is not covered by insurance, but members can pay with HSA and FSA funds. The spokesperson said Neko’s goal is to make preventive care available to more people over time, which “may include accepting insurance in the future.”
As for the data, the company says it belongs to the member. Neko said it does not sell member data or share it with insurers, employers or pharmaceutical companies. Members choose whether their data can be used for research or product development.
New Yorkers can join the waitlist on Neko’s website, where sign-ups for its Miami, D.C. and San Francisco clinics are also open.
