Read the article by Kirsten Korosec our portfolio company, Zipline.
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U.S. autonomous drone delivery and logistics startup Zipline has raised another $200 million, adding to a recent funding round originally announced in January.
“Things have moved a little faster than we expected,” founder and CEO Keller Cliffton said in a video message posted on X that provided a broader update on the company.
The additional funds, which included participation from crypto investment firm Paradigm, has pushed Zipline’s recent Series H round to $800 million. Fidelity Management & Research Company, Baillie Gifford, Valor Equity Partners, and Tiger Global participated in the initial tranche that valued the drone delivery startup at $7.6 billion.
Zipline has developed a drone delivery ecosystem that includes the aircraft, launch and landing systems, as well as logistics software. The company, founded in 2014, got its start in Africa, where it used its autonomous drones to deliver blood in Rwanda. Zipline has expanded its reach and what its drones are used for in the years since. Today, its drones deliver food, retail, agriculture, and health products in five African countries, several cities in the United States, and Japan.
The funds are being used to accelerate Zipline’s expansion to at least four U.S. states this year. The company has announced Houston, Phoenix, and Seattle as new markets.
Zipline has seen considerable growth in a home delivery service that launched last year in the United States, Cliffton said in the video, noting that delivery volume growth beat its forecast in January and February.
“We’re actually expecting to accelerate our growth over the next three months, relative to 2025,” he added. Cliffton said the growth was being driven by customers using the drones multiple times a day and to make larger orders.
“In the last three weeks, we’ve actually seen the average amount of stuff per basket increased by more than 20% with customers ordering all the time from Zipline,” he said, adding that in response the company is doubling the number of brands on the app over the next 30 days.
Zipline’s home delivery service uses Zipline’s Platform 2 drones, which are designed to carry up to eight pounds and travel to customers within a 10-mile radius. Its larger Platform 1 drones are used for long-range deliveries for enterprise, business, and government that can cover 120 miles round trip. The P2 platform started in Pea Ridge, Arkansas, and the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex with Walmart, and more than a dozen restaurant brands.
The startup is still intent on growing its services outside of the United States. Cliffton noted that Zipline just closed a new national-scale contract across Rwanda that will allow it to launch its Platform 2 autonomous drone delivery service in major cities there. Zipline is also opening a third distribution center to help it serve every single hospital and health facility throughout the country, Cliffton said.
