October 31, 2023 — Butterfly Network, Inc., a digital health company transforming care through the power of portable, semiconductor-based ultrasound technology and intuitive software, and Forest Neurotech, a deep tech research company that is building a minimally-invasive device for imaging and stimulating the brain with ultrasound, today announced they have entered into a five-year co-development agreement.
The agreement includes $20MM to be paid to Butterfly for annual licensing, chip purchases, services and milestone payments, of which $3.5MM was received on signing. Additional revenue is anticipated for every unit sold upon commercialization. Forest Neurotech is the latest Focused Research Organization to be created as part of Convergent Research, an incubator for ambitious scientific non-profits and member of the Schmidt Futures Network. Convergent Research recently announced $50M in new philanthropic support.
Joseph DeVivo, Butterfly Network’s President, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman commented, “Forest Neurotech is an exemplary partner that validates the vision behind Butterfly Garden. We opened our imaging platform for co-development to encourage and expedite innovation that captures the full potential of Butterfly’s disruptive chip technology through new applications and in adjacent markets. By bringing our chip into the neurotech implantables space, this partnership does exactly that.”
“We are thrilled to embark on this journey with Butterfly Network, whose unique Ultrasound-on-Chip technology is key to enabling our novel approach to minimally invasive brain imaging and stimulation.” said Will Biederman, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Forest Neurotech. “Our shared passion for innovation and semiconductor-enabled healthcare technologies makes Butterfly the perfect match to enable our vision of developing the world’s first implanted, whole-brain neural interface.”
The news follows Butterfly’s announcement in August 2023, launching Butterfly Garden to facilitate partnerships with medical device companies, AI companies, or software developers seeking to build new applications with its industry leading imaging platform. Butterfly’s Ultrasound-on-Chip technology can operate at a wide range of frequencies, has enormous programming flexibility, and is compact in size, making it highly suitable for a variety of ultrasonic sensing use cases, including potential implantables.
Since launching Butterfly Garden, Butterfly has seen a strong response to the program and the company expects additional collaboration announcements to follow.
Butterfly continues to accept applications for third-party development on a rolling basis. To learn more or apply, visit https://www.butterflynetwork.com/butterfly-garden.
April 24, 2024 
