Inside Daniel Ek's new body scanning startup

Welcome to the 29th issue of the Tech Wrap-Up Europe newsletter.

Every few weeks, we'll be sharing interesting stories and expert insights from LinkedIn members.?

In this issue, Sam Shead, LinkedIn's tech and innovation editor for the UK and Europe, looks at Sweden's number one startup.

?? Neko Health , the new body scanning startup co-founded by Spotify CEO Daniel Ek , is on a mission to change healthcare as we know it: Ek ultimately wants to achieve the same for health that he did for music – and that involves redesigning the industry from scratch.?

The Stockholm company launched in Sweden last year and opened its first clinic in London last month. Over 25,000 people signed up for a scan at the clinic in Marylebone within two weeks of the doors opening, according to Neko Health CEO Hjalmar Nilsonne.?

"We're seeing an avalanche of demand here in the UK," Nilsonne tells LinkedIn News.

Neko Health, which ranked first on LinkedIn's Top Startups in Sweden list this year, uses a combination of off-the-shelf and bespoke medical equipment to conduct its body scans.?

During the scan, which takes less than 15 minutes, Neko analyses moles on your body, the overall health of your heart and arteries, your blood sugar, cholesterol levels, and several other things. It uses 70 sensors to collect over 50 million data points.?

After visiting, patients are sent a text message that contains a link to a website where they can see around 30,000 data points.?

Putting a price on health

Customers pay around 2750kr (€240) in Sweden or ￡300 (€357) in the UK for a body scan.

Jo Dalton, the founder of JD&Co, wrote on LinkedIn that the scans are at a price point that has the potential to democratise access.

She added: "This tech is a game changer for detecting major health issues like cardiac disease and diabetes before they become life-threatening, with results faster than getting dressed."?

The vast majority of people who get scanned are in good health, and for these patients, Neko claims it can help them improve and maintain their long-term health.

In terms of competition, there are other companies that provide body scans. Some of them do more in-depth tests, but they tend to take longer and they can also be significantly more expensive. MRI Plus , for example, will carry out an MRI scan for between ￡999 and ￡2999, depending on the extent.?

Growing up surrounded by doctors

Healthcare runs in Nilsonne's family: his grandfather had his own medical practice in Stockholm over 100 years ago, and both his parents were doctors. Meanwhile, his brother is a neuroscientist and "the smart one in the family".?

Although Nilsonne grew up around hospitals, ER, and medical events, he had no desire to join the industry himself.?

He co-founded two companies in the energy space and spent about a decade "obsessed with the problem of climate change".?

One was a solar cell company that developed a nanotexture to improve the efficiency of solar panels and the other applied machine learning and artificial intelligence to energy data. However, convincing utilities companies to embrace his software proved to be difficult.?

A DM from Daniel?

Then, in 2018, Nilsonne got a direct message from Daniel Ek. It was "totally random" as the pair had never met or even spoken before. "His message was basically like: 'Hey, I heard you're wrapping things up with your company . . . I think we should talk."?

Ek was about to list Spotify on the New York Stock Exchange, meaning he would soon have an abundance of capital at his disposal.

He was thinking about how he could use that money to make the world a better place, Nilsonne says, noting that he didn't see any companies trying to reinvent healthcare in the same way that Spotify reinvented music.?

But he couldn't find any so he suggested that he and Nilsonne work on the challenge together.?

"I told Daniel: 'I think you should definitely do it, and I think you should definitely not do it with me,'" Nilsonne says.?

However, the duo kept on talking for a few months and concluded that the current "reactive" healthcare systems around the world simply aren't working.?

"No matter which western country you look at, you have an exponential increase in healthcare costs, which is unsustainable," Nilsonne says. Part of the problem is that many healthcare facilities "haven't really changed" since the 1980s, he adds. "When I go to the doctor with my kids, pretty much everything is the same. The tools that the doctor is using are the same."?

Meanwhile, Nilsonne points out that cars and telephones and computers have all changed significantly.?

Roy Jakobs , the CEO of Dutch healthcare giant 飞利浦 , told Bloomberg this week that healthcare "is a big societal priority that actually is in need of innovation".

He says innovation is needed to address a gap in how much more healthcare needs to be consumed, highlighting how there are more patients, more chronic diseases and more demand on the amount of care people get versus the supply.?

Approximately 75% of costs in healthcare systems are associated with chronic diseases that are largely preventable, or can be greatly delayed if you find them in time and do the appropriate interventions, Nilsonne says. "It seemed clear that some kind of preventative healthcare system would be much, much better," he says, noting that this idea goes back 3,000 years to the Hippocratic oath, which states prevention is always preferable to cure.?

Spa-like facilities

Neko is looking to set up clinics where it fits well with the vibe of the company.?

"We don't want to be [on the] high street but we also don't want to be off somewhere that feels optimised for low rent rather than convenience for our members," Nilsonne says.?

The company has raised around €90m from investors including Ek's venture capital firm Primera Materia, Atomico and General Catalyst. The first €30m came from Prima Materia, and then a subsequent round of €60m was raised.?

There are plans to open Neko Health clinics in more countries around the world but Nilsonne won't be drawn on where exactly. Asked about the US, the largest healthcare market in the world, he says: "It's a matter of when the timing is going to be correct."?

There's likely to be new equipment added to the scans in the next one to three years, he adds, noting that there are six different clinical trials currently underway.?

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