Over the last few years, Burlington has continued to grow and expand into the life sciences industry with much success. Back toward the start of 2022, the Butterfly Network earned the approval for The District with their plans to move into 1600 District Avenue. Butterfly also announced it would make this location its central location. With offices in New York, California, and Taiwan, it’s amazing that their headquarters are right here in Burlington!
After a search across the nation for a location for their headquarters, they decided on placing roots at 1600 District Avenue, which has three stories and over 60,000 square feet. To accommodate their headquarters, Butterfly will be on all three floors. While they had been setting up and moving into the building since the spring, it was in late October that the Butterfly Network had its grand opening to the public. The ribbon-cutting ceremony was held in their new headquarters and Butterfly received a warm welcome from the community.
They decided on Burlington because it was a great location to connect to both the technology side of their business as well as their life science mission. As founder Jonathan M. Rothberg put it: “Our mission is to democratize healthcare by making medical imaging accessible to everyone around the world.”
One of their inventions is a portable, individual sonogram machine which is revolutionary. Sonogram machines are usually bulky and need to be transported on a cart with multiple attachments. Also, they’re at least $20,000 for a full-capacity machine, but many are higher in price. For many medical professionals across the world, the use of such expensive and less-than-mobile machines can cause a delay while doctors and patients are looking for answers. This is where the Butterfly Network steps in.
The company raised the funds to begin developing the Ultrasound iQ in the early 2010s. By 2018, they were shipping the product out globally, and for the price of $2000. Affordable and portable, the Butterfly iQ+ and Butterfly blueprint provide the imaging platform for patient assessment, diagnosis, and treatment.
Butterfly Network is a unique R&D company because it is blending not just the health aspects, but also the technology aspects. As Melisa Tintocalis, Burlington Economic Development Director put it during the grand opening “Burlington, which we’ve had a long history around high tech, but now with life science, it’s really elevated it to a whole new dimension.”
The Town of Burlington is excited to be at the center of life science innovation and another home for such an amazing company.