Neko Health vertical integration advantage

Vertical integration matters here because Neko is not selling a lab test or a doctor visit by itself, it is selling a tightly choreographed one hour clinic workflow. By designing the scanner, the software, and the clinical steps together, Neko can decide exactly what happens in the 30 minute measurement phase, what gets reviewed automatically, and how much clinician time is reserved for the consult, which is the core lever behind scans per room, scans per clinician, and cost per visit.1 2 3

• Neko has built the service around a fixed visit format, roughly 30 minutes collecting imaging, cardiovascular, and blood data, then 30 minutes with a clinician. That only scales cleanly if the device, data pipeline, and care protocol are built to work as one system, otherwise bottlenecks shift to room turnover, result review, or staffing.1 2
• This is the opposite of Function Health’s model. Function sends members into Quest Diagnostics’ existing network for blood draws and sells clinician reviewed results in software, which is lighter on fixed infrastructure but gives it less control over the in person workflow. Neko takes on rent, hardware, and staffing so it can standardize the whole encounter.1 4
• The payoff Neko is chasing is visible in demand and clinic design. The company says more than 100,000 scans have been delivered, its first New York clinic opened with seven scan rooms, and waitlist demand moved from 25,000 before launch to more than 50,000 shortly after. That makes throughput a first order economic variable, not an operational detail.2 3 5

Going forward, the companies that win in preventive clinics are likely to be the ones that turn medical visits into repeatable operating systems. If Neko keeps improving automation in its next generation devices, it can push more volume through each site, spread hardware and rent across more paid scans, and make clinic expansion look more like a scalable product rollout than a traditional healthcare services business.1 2 3