[1] The company was founded in Christchurch, New Zealand to commercialize the MARS imaging system for its applications in medicine.

MARS Bioimaging Limited was founded in September 2007[2] by father and son professors, Phillip and Anthony Butler to develop x-ray imaging that captures and processes information from individual x-ray photons, producing quantitative 3D color imaging at very high resolution (50-200 μm).

[3][4][5] MARS imaging systems are based on the new generation Medipix chip licensed out of CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research), Switzerland[2] and technology developed by the University of Canterbury (UC), and other partners.

NZ$1.5 million grant from the Tertiary Education Commission - Infrastructure Development Fund was awarded to MBI after forming in 2007, followed by a NZ$4.5 million manufacturing award from the Foundation for Research Science and Technology to developing a small animal spectral scanner for researchers.

[1] On November 16, 2020, MBI announced international clinical trials of their compact, point-of-care MARS system for diagnosing hand and wrist injuries would begin early 2021.