Butterfly Network vs Insitro

By valuation, Insitro is the larger company at $2.2B versus $1.5B — a 1.5x difference. Size can also be measured by team: Butterfly Network employs 500-1000 people while Insitro has 300 employees.

Insitro has raised more in total funding at $743M, compared to Butterfly Network's $700M — a gap of $43M. Combined, the two companies have completed 3 known funding rounds.

Butterfly Network holds the higher Awaira Score at 85/100, compared to Insitro's 73/100. The Awaira Score is a composite metric factoring in valuation, funding, stage, team size, and market presence — a 12-point gap that reflects meaningful differences in scale or traction.

Butterfly Network was founded by John Martin in 2011. Insitro was founded by Daphne Koller in 2018. Visit each company's profile on Awaira for a full founder biography.

Butterfly Network: Butterfly Network produces the Butterfly iQ, a handheld ultrasound device powered by a proprietary semiconductor chip that replaces traditional piezoelectric transducer arrays with a single silicon chip capable of whole-body imaging. The AI software layer provides real-time image interpretation guidance, enabling clinicians with limited ultrasound training to perform diagnostic scans at the bedside.\n\nThe company is publicly traded on the NYSE under the ticker BFLY and raised over 700 million USD prior to and through its public listing. Butterfly has deployed devices across hospitals, emergency rooms, and point-of-care settings in over 50 countries, with particular penetration in resource-limited healthcare settings where traditional ultrasound equipment is prohibitively expensive or unavailable.\n\nPortable AI-assisted diagnostic imaging represents a structural shift in how and where medical imaging is performed. Butterfly Network has created a defensible position through its proprietary chip architecture, which competitors cannot easily replicate, and through its growing library of AI-assisted clinical guidance tools. The transition from hospital-based imaging to point-of-care diagnostics powered by AI guidance is a multi-decade trend that positions Butterfly at the center of a fundamental change in diagnostic medicine. Insitro: Insitro is an AI-driven drug discovery company founded in 2018 that applies machine learning to accelerate pharmaceutical development. The company combines computational biology, artificial intelligence, and wet-lab experimentation to identify and validate drug targets more efficiently than traditional methods. Insitro's platform uses proprietary algorithms to analyze complex biological data, predict drug efficacy and safety profiles, and optimize candidate selection across therapeutic areas including metabolic disease, oncology, and immunology. The company has raised $743 million across multiple funding rounds, achieving a valuation of $2.2 billion as of its Series C stage. This positions Insitro among well-capitalized AI healthcare startups addressing the structural inefficiencies in drug discovery. The company partners with pharmaceutical institutions to apply its technology to their pipelines, leveraging both internal discovery programs and collaborations. Insitro's competitive approach differs from pure software platforms by integrating experimental validation, reducing the translation gap between computational predictions and real-world drug performance. The company operates in a crowded but expanding market of AI drug discovery platforms competing against both established pharma AI initiatives and other venture-backed startups. Its growth trajectory reflects investor confidence in AI-enabled drug discovery models, though clinical validation remains ongoing for internally developed candidates. Insitro uniquely combines machine learning with integrated wet-lab capabilities rather than operating as pure software, bridging computational predictions to experimental validation.

Butterfly Network was founded first in 2011, giving it 7 years of additional market experience. Insitro was founded later in 2018. In AI, even a year or two of head start can translate into significantly more training data, customer relationships, and institutional knowledge.

Butterfly Network has approximately 500-1000 employees, while Insitro has approximately 300. A larger team often signals higher revenue or venture backing, but in AI, smaller teams are increasingly capable of building at scale.

Yes, Butterfly Network and Insitro are direct competitors — both operate in the AI Healthcare space and likely target overlapping customer segments. This comparison is especially relevant for buyers evaluating both platforms.