Hjalmar Nilsonne
Hjalmar Nilsonne is a Swedish engineer and entrepreneur who is co-founder, CEO, and a board member of Neko HealthNeko HealthNeko Health is a Swedish health technology company co-founded in 2018 by Daniel Ek and Hjalmar Nilsonne and headquartered in Stockholm. The company provides preventive health assessments combining sensor scans, blood tests, and doctor consultations, and operates scan centers in Sweden and the United Kingdom.Open the full entry. He earlier co-founded the energy data company Watty, and in 2018 co-founded Neko Health with Daniel EkDaniel EkDaniel Ek is a Swedish entrepreneur and a co-founder of Spotify, and has served as Spotify’s executive chairman since January 2026. He also co-founded Neko Health with Hjalmar Nilsonne and helped found the investment firm Prima Materia.Open the full entry, advancing health scan services that combine sensors with doctor consultations.
Contents11 sections
Key facts
1986Birth and Family Influence
Hjalmar Nilsonne was born in Stockholm in 1986 and grew up in a family of physicians. He first applied engineering to the energy sector and later brought this technical background to a health scanning startup.[1]
2013Co-Founds Energy Data Company Watty
Nilsonne studied industrial engineering at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, focusing on energy systems and machine learning. In 2013, he co-founded Watty with other engineering students and served as its CEO; the company used household electricity data to identify the energy consumption of different appliances, providing analytics to users and energy service providers.[2][3]
July 27, 2016Explains Watty’s Energy Analytics Model
As Watty announced €3 million in funding, Nilsonne explained in an interview that the company sought to turn complex electricity measurements into information consumers could understand. He had previously taught energy-related courses at KTH and found that users had difficulty understanding their energy use from raw data, which led to a product that uses software to analyze household appliance activity.[3]
2018Co-Founds Neko Health with Daniel Ek
Nilsonne co-founded Neko Health with Daniel Ek in 2018 and serves as its CEO. Their collaboration combines software, sensors, and medical processes, with the goal of providing more diagnostic information before health risks develop into noticeable symptoms.[4][5]
Nilsonne later recalled that Ek had heard him speak at the 2015 Brilliant Minds event and later contacted him, when he was running into difficulties with Watty, proposing to work together exploring the healthcare field. Nilsonne did not accept immediately at first, then gradually shifted his focus to the project.[1]
December 20, 2018Watty Technology Licensed
NET2GRID announced that it had acquired a license to use Watty’s appliance recognition technology, with Nilsonne commenting on the partnership as Watty’s CEO. The deal involved a technology license and cannot be taken to mean that NET2GRID acquired the company Watty.[6]
February 14, 2019Record of Watty’s Acquisition by Discovergy
2023–2025Expanding Neko Scan Centers and Funding
Neko opened its first center in Stockholm in February 2023 and entered London in September 2024. As CEO, Nilsonne is responsible for bringing to market a service that combines sensor-based scans with doctors’ interpretation; in January 2025, the company announced a $260 million Series B to expand its business and research and development.[8][9]
August 18, 2026Announces US Expansion Plans
Neko announced plans to open its first US center in New York on September 24, 2026. In a public post, Nilsonne described this milestone as the result of years of research, development, and operations by the team; as of September 20, 2026, the New York center remained an announced project pending opening.[10][11]
September 9, 2026Explains Consumer Experience and Clinical Team Collaboration
In an interview, Nilsonne emphasized that attracting individuals by improving the consumer experience is one of the ways Neko promotes health scans. He also regards ongoing collaboration between doctors and engineers as central to product development, linking technical data collection with clinical interpretation. These are his entrepreneurial ideas and do not constitute independent evidence that the scans can prevent disease.[1]
Related Organizations, Websites, and Public Accounts
Neko Health: co-founder, CEO, and board member; Official website: https://www.nekohealth.com/ (opens in a new window). X: Public account: @HNilsonne, https://x.com/HNilsonne (opens in a new window); the profile identifies him as an engineer and as founder and CEO of Neko.[5][4][12]
Sources
- Neko Health：Hjalmar Nilsonne访谈 [Neko Health: Interview with Hjalmar Nilsonne] (opens in a new window) (in Chinese)
- Hjalmar Nilsonne — Brilliant Minds 2026 (opens in a new window)
- Smart Energy Startup Watty Raises €3 Million (opens in a new window)
- Neko Health raises €60m Series A (opens in a new window)
- Transparency (opens in a new window)
- NET2GRID acquires license to Watty technology (opens in a new window)
- Watty was acquired by the Germans from Discovergy (opens in a new window)
- Neko Health raises $260m Series B (opens in a new window)
- Neko Health launches in London (opens in a new window)
- Neko Health is opening in New York City (opens in a new window)
- Hjalmar Nilsonne：Neko纽约中心开业计划 [Hjalmar Nilsonne: Neko New York Center Opening Plan] (opens in a new window) (in Chinese)
- Hjalmar Nilsonne (@HNilsonne) (opens in a new window)