Ahead Health lands $6m in seed funding to accelerate digital-first approach to early detection of disease.
Swiss preventive health startup Ahead Health today announced it has raised $6 million to accelerate its mission to make preventive healthcare more accessible in Europe. The Zurich-based company is building an AI-powered platform that ingests data from full-body MRI scans, advanced blood testing and other diagnostic modalities into a single, “digital-first” experience designed to detect disease years before the onset of symptoms.
Using AI to translate biomarkers from MRI and blood data into personalized insights, Ahead ultimately aims to become an “integration layer” between cutting-edge diagnostics and the broader healthcare ecosystem, supporting its transition to preventive care. With prices starting at under $400 for a blood-test only package, and more than $4,000 for its most comprehensive offering, the company claims its approach has already uncovered previously unknown medical issues in around one in four early customers, ranging from cardiovascular and metabolic conditions to cancer and endometriosis.
The funding round was led by RTP Global, with participation from Tiny.VC, Pareto 20 and a host of high-profile individuals, including the likes of MIT and DeepMind researcher Michiel Bakker and professional soccer player Cody Gakpo. Ahead aims to use the funding to scale its European expansion by signing up more partner clinics across Germany, the Netherlands and Austria, enhance its platform, and introduce new testing modalities.
Longevity.Technology: In the US, the market for AI-enabled preventive health services is increasingly competitive, with companies like Function, Superpower and Hundred Health entering the market in recent years amid growing consumer interest in data-driven health. In Europe, the scene is more fragmented, and Ahead is hoping to establish itself as a leader in the continent’s shift from its established reactive healthcare model to one based on proactive prevention. To learn more about the company’s approach, we sat down with CEO and co-founder Nick Lenten.
According to Lenten, the idea behind Ahead is that it will ultimately become a “super app for prevention.”
“I don’t think we want, or need, to do all the different action plan implementation steps ourselves, but we want to be the integration layer: the highest-quality data transformed into the right, medically backed insights,” he says. “I hope this becomes the prevention doctor in your pocket.”
Building for the prevention revolution
While healthcare’s move towards prevention is inevitable, Lenten says the tricky part for Ahead’s founders was deciding the best way to build a startup that could play a role in that shift.
“Do you go B2B as a longevity technology company selling to healthcare providers, or do you go B2B2C via insurers?” he says. “Our belief was that to really innovate here, we needed to go direct-to-consumer first, and then work our way toward those models.”
As a licensed medical provider, Ahead operates through partnerships with established clinics, and Lenten says the company aims to connect its users with their “local healthcare ecosystem” for follow-ups with medical specialists.
“For example, if we find endometriosis, you might want to go to a specific endometriosis specialist,” he explains. “But we also aim to support more lifestyle and subclinical next steps – like a personal trainer for the muscle imbalance we found in your back, and everything in between.”
The company is aiming to bring the same level of health insight currently provided by high-end concierge clinics to a wider audience.
“This is how we developed our first package, which I call our Tesla Roadster,” says Lenten. “It’s cheaper than what you get elsewhere in the market, but still expensive in absolute terms: a $2,500 full-body MRI plus blood test check-up, working with high-quality partner clinics – first in Switzerland, and soon in other countries. We translate that with a combination of AI and our doctors into great insights, an action plan, and a beautiful report. That was our initial MVP experience.”
Democratizing prevention
Since then, Lenten says Ahead has been “chipping away” at improving the product – making it more personalized, and also less expensive.
“For instance, now you can onboard with just a blood test,” he adds. “Over time, I want to create even cheaper entry points, so you can onboard with just your existing medical records.”
While the company’s packages leverage advanced diagnostics like full-body MRI, Lenten is keen to stress that he doesn’t see the company as a diagnostics provider.
“I see us as the translator of insights and data, the connector, and the center of gravity of your healthcare journey,” he says. “MRI and blood test protocols will eventually commoditize – the real magic happens after you have the data – doing something useful with it. That’s where we aim to make our mark and build IP.”
In terms of IP, Ahead’s AI protocol is key, which Lenten says has been optimized to capture high-quality data on risk signals.
“We currently detect around 500 abnormalities from biomarkers extracted from images, blood results, and additional tests – like breast MRI, DEXA scans, lung CTs,” he says. “We also track biomarkers over time, like brain age, and combine modalities (blood + MRI) to make better suggestions. We then process all of that into a detailed report, which a doctor reviews and signs off before it reaches the customer.”
A ‘city-by-city’ strategy
Addressing the concerns raised by some about whether services like Ahead could potentially lead to “overdiagnosis,” Lenten shares a personal perspective.
“A smart doctor once told me: there’s no such thing as overdiagnosis – there’s over-treatment,” he says. “I still want the data; I just want to do smart things with it. Here’s an example: we found a very small aneurysm in my brain. Clinically irrelevant today, but I’m glad I have the data – if it changes in three years, that’s meaningful. This is where a confident human doctor, backed by science and high-quality data, matters. Tracking over time matters.”
Looking ahead, Lenten says that the funding will be used primarily to fund Ahead’s product development and geographic expansion.
“Product-wise, our ‘action plan’ is the biggest focus – making it more personalized, goal-driven, and local,” he explains. “Then it’s all about expansion. We’re currently only in Zurich, but healthcare is local, so this is more a city-by-city play than country-by-country. We need to be awesome somewhere before being awesome everywhere. So, it’ll be Geneva next, and then the next city – likely Germany, the Netherlands, or the UK.”
“One day, I hope people think of us instead of ‘Dr Google’ because they can trust our data and the precision. We know your body better than a generic platform can, and we’re willing to go into your local, regulated healthcare ecosystem to take the next step.”
