- Half Moon Bay-based medical supply drone delivery company Zipline recently announced it raised $190 million at a $1.2 billion valuation
- With this round of funding, Zipline is planning to set up delivery hubs at 2,600 health facilities in Rwanda and Ghana
Zipline, a Half Moon Bay, California-based company that delivers medical supplies using drones, announced a $190 million round of funding with a valuation of $1.2 billion. The investors in this round include Baillie Gifford, The Rise Fund (TPG’s global impact fund), Temasek, GV (Alphabet’s investment arm), and Katalyst Ventures. Including this round, Zipline has raised a total of $225 million.
Founded by CEO Keller Rinaudo, Keenan Wyrobek, and William Hetzler in 2011, Zipline is planning to set up delivery hubs at 2,600 health facilities in Rwanda and Ghana by the end of the year with this round of funding.
Plus the funding is expected to serve about 700 million people in the next five years across Africa and Asia as well. And the company plans to start making deliveries of medical supplies in the U.S. soon — starting with North Carolina where it has permission from the FAA. And Zipline is planning to increase its workforce to 600 people.
“People think what we do is solving a developing economies problem. But critical-access hospitals are closing at an alarming rate in the U.S., too, especially if you live in the rural U.S. Life expectancy there has declined over the past several years,” said Rinaudo via CNBC. One of the leading causes of lower life expectancy in rural areas is drug overdoses.
Zipline partners with healthcare facilities, governments, and pharmaceuticals companies for delivering over 170 different vaccines to nearly 22 million people. Ultimately, the goal is to provide a higher level of access to necessary treatments to people wherever they live.
To set up the orders, healthcare workers send text messages requesting the type of medical supplies to local distribution centers. From there, drone deliveries are dispatched and arrive within 30 minutes. The drones drop the package (with parachutes) to a designated area.
Zipline’s drones can carry about 4 lbs. of cargo and fly around 68 MPH in all kinds of weather. In terms of distance range, it can travel about 99 miles round trip. In Rwanda, Zipline drones have traveled over 1 million kilometers and made more than 13,000 deliveries. Of the 13,000 deliveries, about one-third have been for life-saving emergencies.
A couple of months ago, Zipline announced it expanded its services to Ghana. This expansion comes about three years after launching in Rwanda. This means that Zipline is now the largest autonomous medical drone-delivery service as it covers an area that serves nearly 22 million people.
The $190 million was in additional funding that was split between a previously unannounced $70 million round of funding from the spring of 2018. Katalyst Ventures, Baillie Gifford, GV, Temasek and Goldman Sachs participated in that round and a recent round that included additional funding from Baillie Gifford and The Rise Fund (new investor).
Katalyst Ventures founding partner Susan Choe told the San Francisco Business Times that her venture firm was happy to invest in Zipline since the drones save lives with every deliver that is made. And she is impressed with the technical execution that the company performed to date.
“It’s always hard to create something from nothing, especially when you are combining hardware and software in a startup. I don’t think there is anything they need to be doing better, however, I know they will need to start hiring more people to serve the high quality of demand that they already have,” said Choe via San Francisco Business Times.
