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Butterfly Network makes a pocket-sized ultrasound scanner that plugs into a phone and uses computer chips instead of moving parts.
Butterfly Network is a medical imaging company selling one main product: a handheld ultrasound device called Butterfly iQ3 that plugs into a smartphone or tablet. Old ultrasound machines cost tens of thousands of dollars and use crystals that vibrate to make sound waves. Butterfly replaces those crystals with a silicon chip — basically a computer chip that sends and receives sound — which makes the device tiny, cheap to build, and able to run on software. The company sells to hospitals, clinics, and individual doctors. It makes money two ways: selling the hardware, and charging a subscription for the software and AI tools that help users capture and interpret images.
Think of it as the iPhone moment for ultrasound — taking a machine that used to live in a dedicated room and shrinking it into something a doctor can carry in a coat pocket. The big idea is putting imaging into more hands, so a nurse in a rural clinic can scan a patient without sending them to a specialist. The company also leans on artificial intelligence to help non-experts get a usable picture, which matters because the hardest part of ultrasound has always been holding the probe correctly.
Butterfly was founded in 2011 and went public in 2021 by merging with a blank-check company, a deal that raised a lot of cash and a lot of hype. The stock has since fallen hard from its early highs as revenue stayed modest — roughly $80 million a year — and the company kept losing money. It now focuses on cost cuts and pushing software subscriptions as the higher-margin, recurring part of the business. It still burns cash, so there is no dividend or buyback to speak of; any spare money goes back into product development and staying alive long enough to reach profitability.
Saved answer · last researched 11 Oct 2026