Neko Health Raised $700 Million. The $499 Scan Is the Front Door, Not the Business

Neko Health has delivered a little over 100,000 scans [1]. Even if every one had been sold at the UK price of £299, that is about £30 million of scan revenue, set against a valuation reported at about $7 billion after a $700 million round in July [1][9]. Allow for growth and a US launch, and it is still well over a hundred times the scans sold so far. Nobody pays that for a scanning business. The scan, now $499 in New York, is the front door [3]; what investors are buying is the relationship behind it.

That distinction explains the whole category. Function Health sells a 22-minute full-body MRI for $499 as an add-on to its lab membership [4], and Prenuvo charges about $2,500 for its whole-body scan [5]. Prices are falling because the scan is how these companies acquire members. It also explains why the evidence question matters more to the people being scanned than to the people funding them: radiologists and the US Preventive Services Task Force are still asking for evidence that screening healthy people helps [6][7][8].

What did Neko Health raise, and where is it going?

• The round. A $700 million Series C announced on 15 July 2026, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and co-led by O.G. Venture Partners, with Atomico, General Catalyst and Lakestar returning [1]. The valuation, reported at about $7 billion, comes from press reports rather than the company, and is roughly four times the January 2025 Series B [1][9].
• The scale. More than 100,000 scans delivered in Sweden and the UK, and more than 350,000 people on waitlists or booked, by the company’s count [1].
• The US launch. A clinic at 300 Lafayette Street in SoHo opened on 24 September 2026, charging $499 for about an hour, cash only. More New York sites are planned, then Miami, Washington and San Francisco [2][3].

Its reported valuation puts Neko in the same league as WHOOP and Oura, the most valuable wearable companies. We covered how capital is concentrating in a few consumer health names in Oura’s postponed IPO.

What does a $499 scan actually measure?

Neko’s scan is not an MRI, and it uses no radiation. It combines [2][10]:

• Skin: high-resolution and thermal cameras and a multi-wavelength light scanner, with moles mapped and stored so changes can be tracked between visits;
• Heart and arteries: an ECG, arterial analysis and a laser vibrometer measuring cardiovascular function;
• Blood: biomarkers processed on site, aimed at pre-diabetes, metabolic and cardiovascular risk;
• Body composition: visceral fat and body fat percentage from Neko’s own imaging, added in June 2026, without X-ray;
• A consultation with a clinician to go through results the same day.

The US scan is cash-pay; insurance is not accepted [3]. Between scans, Neko syncs with wearables through Apple Health to tailor year-round action plans [10].

The MRI companies sell something different: images of organs, the brain, the spine and soft tissue, looking for tumors, aneurysms and other structural problems. Function cut Ezra’s scan from about an hour and $1,500 to 22 minutes and $499 as an add-on to its blood testing membership [4]. Prenuvo, which raised $120 million and runs its own centers, charges about $2,500 for its whole-body scan [5].

How often do these scans find something?

Very often, which is both the selling point and the problem.

Weill Cornell reported that in the first 18 months of its whole-body MRI program, about 90% of roughly 160 patients had some finding, about 30% had findings that were not inherently worrying but needed follow-up, and about 1% had findings that were malignant or suspected to be [6]. Some studies suggest more than 60% of screened patients go on to additional imaging, most of which adds little [6].

That pattern is why the American College of Radiology said in 2023 that there is “not sufficient evidence” to recommend total-body screening for people without symptoms, risk factors or family history, and warned of follow-up tests, procedures and expense driven by findings that do not improve health [7]. The Netherlands does not permit whole-body MRI screening of healthy people at all [6]. As one radiologist put it, “Simply detecting more cancers does not mean the technique is beneficial” [6].

Neko’s sensor-based scan avoids radiation and MRI incidentalomas, but its individual tests run into the same evidence gap. The USPSTF recommends against screening ECGs in adults at low risk of heart disease, and says evidence is insufficient for routine visual skin cancer screening in adults without symptoms [8][11]. Neither statement says the tests are useless; both say the benefit for healthy people has not been shown.

Why is the scan priced like a customer acquisition cost?

Because that is what it is. Three things point the same way:

• Prices are converging on $499. Faster scanning explains part of it: Ezra cut its MRI from about an hour to 22 minutes [4]. But a market moving from about $2,500 to $499 also makes sense when the scan is how you acquire a member rather than the thing you earn on [3][4][5].
• The product continues after the scan. Neko gives members an action plan and syncs with their wearables through Apple Health between visits; Function sells the MRI as an add-on to an ongoing lab membership [4][10]. The valuable thing is the yearly relationship, the repeat scans and the follow-on purchases: blood tests, coaching, specialist referrals.
• The data compounds. Every scan adds to a longitudinal dataset of measurements and repeat visits that the company owns, and that dataset gets more valuable with every year a member stays.

None of this is sinister. Membership models are how most consumer health companies work, and demand is real: hundreds of thousands of people are on waitlists [1][3]. But it changes how to read the evidence debate. A business that earns from the relationship and the follow-up has every reason to find things and keep people coming back, which is exactly the pattern radiologists worry about [6][7]. Members, employers and insurers are the ones who should be asking for outcomes, because the business model will not ask for them.

We saw the same pattern in at-home blood testing, where Function, Superpower and WHOOP sell lab panels directly to consumers, and in longevity apps and biological age.

What does this mean for health products, employers and insurers?

For product teams:

• Scan results are a new, episodic data source. A yearly scan says where someone stands; daily sleep, activity and heart rate data says which way they are moving. The two are far more useful together than either alone.
• Expect users to arrive with findings. Users who have been scanned may bring numbers such as visceral fat or arterial stiffness into your app. Decide how you present them next to wearable estimates and keep the source with each value.
• Do not repeat the incidentaloma problem in software. Flagging every deviation produces anxiety and follow-up without benefit. Thresholds, context and clear next steps matter as much as detection.

For employers and insurers:

• Ask for outcomes, not findings counts. A high detection rate is not evidence of benefit, and every finding generates downstream claims [6][7].
• Budget for follow-up. If a benefit includes scans, the follow-up imaging and specialist visits land in the medical plan.
• Prefer targeted screening. Evidence-based screening for people at higher risk, plus continuous signals for everyone, is easier to defend than blanket scans.

The short version

Neko Health raised $700 million at a reported valuation of about $7 billion and opened in New York at $499 a scan; Function sells a 22-minute MRI for $499 and Prenuvo’s whole-body MRI costs about $2,500 [1][3][4][5]. At those valuations the scan is a front door to a membership, not the business itself. Scans find something in most people and lead to follow-up in many, while the ACR, the USPSTF and Dutch regulators say the benefit for healthy people is unproven [6][7][8][11]. The opportunity for health products is not the scan but joining a yearly snapshot with the daily trend, and the burden of asking for outcomes falls on members, employers and insurers.