Editor's Note - This week's big theme
The Check-Up
Yesterday I had my first scan at Neko Health.
For anyone that hasn't come across them, Neko is a preventative health startup from Daniel Ek (Spotify founder) that pitches itself as an AI-enabled full health assessment.
The clinic itself was a bit 'black mirror' with minimalist yellow interiors, a futuristic body scanner and a nurse who introduced herself as my operator for the day. It all felt a bit gimmicky but maybe that's part of the fun.
Then came the results. As somebody who already wears a WHOOP, pays for regular blood testing and generally optimises for health and fitness, I didn't learn anything I didn't already know.
Which got me thinking. Who is this for?
The kind of person that would pay £299 for a full body scan likely already tracks their health, and I'm not sure Neko offers anything additional or different.
For me the interesting version of Neko isn't the consumer one. It's the NHS offering an annual scan, or health insurance companies building it into their offering. That's where real prevention happens.
Not further optimising people who can afford the latest craze.
Industry News
Isomorphic Labs raises $2.1bn Series B to scale AI drug design
London-based Isomorphic Labs has raised $2.1bn in Series B funding led by Thrive Capital in the biggest bet yet on AI drug discovery. The money will fund its AI drug design engine called 'IsoDDE' and push its first wholly-owned therapeutic programmes into clinical trials before the end of 2026. (bloomberg.com)
Why it matters: Drug discovery takes a long time. From idea to production can take 15-20 years with most drugs never making it through clinical trials. If Isomorphic's AI-designed compounds make it through trials those timelines and costs will tumble, meaning the stakes for the companies creating new medicines will be lower than ever.
Let's Do This partners with US events producer Ventures Endurance
UK based Let's Do This has signed a deal with US events firm Ventures Endurance to deploy its AI registration platform to over 30 major events including the Detroit Free Press Marathon and SKECHERS Hot Chocolate race series, a major push towards US expansion. (runningusa.org)
Why it matters: Let's Do This is on a major push to grow in the US where mass participation events are often run in silos with fragmented systems creating friction for runners and producers. Consolidating registration into one platform across potentially thousands of events will give runners an easier way to discover and enter new races, which is the single biggest lever for getting more people into mass participation sport.
Thea sets out to build the AI doctor for skincare and aesthetics
US-based Thea has raised $4m in a pre-seed round led by General Catalyst. The app analyses user photos to assess skin conditions, scores existing routines and connects users to licensed dermatologists for prescription treatment delivered the same day. (insider.fitt.co)
Why it matters: Skincare is a category where most people have no reliable way to know what works for them other than trial and error, at the same time the industry is growing at a faster rate than ever. Thea's platform will provide people with personalised advice and a pathway to regulated care when necessary, reducing the amount of time and money wasted on products that were never designed for them.
Evvy launches AI advisor built on the world's largest vaginal microbiome dataset
Evvy, the US based women's health company that has pioneered the at-home vaginal microbiome test, has launched EvvyAI, a conversational tool that helps users interpret their results. The system is trained on more than 100,000 of Evvy's own tests and hands users off to its clinical team when a question needs licensed care. (femtechinsider.com)
Why it matters: Women's health has been underserved by general AI tools because the underlying training data is heavily male skewed. Evvy has spent four years building the largest dataset of its kind by running its own tests at scale, more evidence that companies generating their own clinical data will end up with answers nobody else can give.
Investment Updates
Regulate, €1.4M Seed (tech.eu) - Munich-based breathwork platform Regulate raised a €1.4M seed led by 4impact.vc, with angels including Personio CEO Hanno Renner and Forto co-founder Mike Wax, to bring guided breathwork into corporate workflows.
Ditto, €7.6M Series A (eu-startups.com) - Rotterdam-based Ditto raised €7.6M led by Heal Capital with Optiverder and Rubio Impact Ventures, to expand its AI app that turns medical consultations and letters into plain-language summaries across Europe.
Tava Health, $40M Series C (bhbusiness.com) - Salt Lake City-based mental health platform Tava Health raised $40M led by Centana Growth Partners to launch an AI-assisted practice management platform, an employer-funded benefits product and a care navigation suite for clinicians and health plans.
9amHealth, $26M Series B (mobihealthnews.com) - San Diego-based virtual cardiometabolic provider 9amHealth raised $26M led by Define Ventures to expand its AI-enabled care platform beyond diabetes and obesity into the broader chronic conditions driving 70% of employer pharmacy spend.
BranchLab, $26M Series A (pulse2.com) - Boulder-based BranchLab raised $26M led by McKesson Ventures with Sanofi Ventures, FCA Venture Partners and AIX Ventures, to scale its AI platform that helps pharma companies target patients and prescribers in near real time without using individual-level health data.
Knit Health, $11.6M Seed (unite.ai) - San Francisco-based UC Berkeley spinout Knit Health emerged from stealth with $11.6M co-led by Uncork Capital and Frist Cressey Ventures, to build a Large Clinical Behavior Model trained on real clinician decisions across 30 US health systems and 130 million patients.
The Health Stack Podcast
Nicola Gunby, Co-Founder of CLIQ
Nicola Gunby on building CLIQ, the community networking app helping people get off social media and meet like-minded people in real life, and what it takes to scale a social platform from London to Australia.
Roles Worth Knowing About
Chief of Staff - Colla Health
Remote, United States
Colla Health provides behavioural healthcare to cancer patients as an extension of their oncology treatment, embedded inside cancer practices and backed by Menlo Ventures. The Chief of Staff will work directly with founder Milan Thakor across strategy, partnerships and operations during a major scale-up phase, with broad ownership across nearly every part of the business.
Engineering Lead, AI Agents - Lottie
London, in-office
Lottie is the UK's fastest-growing care marketplace, helping families find and compare care homes and now building AI agents for the care industry through Eliza, its voice agent that answers calls for care homes. The Engineering Lead will run the team building a new product line of voice and chat agents, owning quality and delivery across this newly launched category at one of the UK's most highly funded health tech startups, backed by Accel and General Catalyst.
Machine Learning Engineer - CoMind
London, Kings Cross (4 days in office)
CoMind is building non-invasive neuromonitoring technology designed to become the first new category of clinical brain monitoring in decades, with data coming from real ICU patients. The Machine Learning Engineer will own ML model architecture and end-to-end delivery for a regulated medical device, working alongside physicists, neuroscientists and clinicians on a genuinely novel time-series problem.
Senior UX Engineer - Doccla
Fully remote, UK / EU / Poland
Doccla is the virtual ward company partnering with more than 60% of NHS ICBs and now expanding across Ireland, France and the DACH region, backed by a £35m Series B led by Lakestar. The Senior UX Engineer will design and self-implement in React and TypeScript across the patient app, clinician portal and voice systems, with a real impact on hundreds of thousands of patients and proper rigour for medical device standards.
Head of Data Science - Qureight
London, Hybrid
Qureight is a Cambridge-headquartered AI imaging CRO that quantifies lung and heart disease directly from CT scans, helping biopharma run faster trials in conditions like IPF and pulmonary hypertension. The Head of Data Science will lead the team building clinical-grade machine learning that ships inside a regulated imaging platform used in live biopharma studies.
That's it for Issue #11.
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