The news
Zipline has raised $1.5 billion at a $21.5 billion post-money valuation to expand US manufacturing and hiring. Paradigm, WCM Investment Management and Layer Global led the round.
Uber, which plans to use Zipline for Uber Eats deliveries, also participated in the funding.
The round brings Zipline's valuation to nearly three times the $7.6 billion it reached after an earlier $600 million raise this year.
The details
The funding comes as Zipline's customers prepare major expansions. Walmart signed a multi-year deal for 300 additional sites on the same day.
Uber and Zipline target 1 million Uber Eats drone deliveries a day by the end of 2029.
Wonder plans more than 100 Texas locations starting in January, with most expected to offer drone delivery by the end of 2027.
Little Caesars is expanding from five Zipline locations to 65.
Zipline is also expanding into new markets and healthcare deliveries. In August, it operated in Dallas, Houston, Cleveland and northwest Arkansas.
In Cleveland, it delivers prescriptions for Cleveland Clinic, starting in suburban Beachwood.
In Austin, it opened an early-access program in Round Rock in October for the first 5,000 residents.
The new funding will support the manufacturing capacity needed for those rollouts. Last year, Zipline announced plans to triple its South San Francisco factory to build up to 15,000 aircraft a year.
The expansion adds jobs in integration, quality assurance and manufacturing.
In Texas, a pending FAA environmental review would raise Zipline's authorized capacity from 30,000 to 220,000 deliveries a day across five metro areas.
Worth noting
Zipline says it has flown 150 million commercial autonomous miles without a safety incident. But two of its drones made parachute-assisted landings in Texas this summer. One came down in Greenville in July and another on a Houston-area highway in September. No one was hurt.
What peers are doing
Flytrex is also building drones in Texas, but at a smaller scale. It opened a factory in Pilot Point in May with capacity for about 1,000 Sky2 drones a year. It has 20 workers there and plans to increase that to 50.
What’s next
Uber and Zipline expect to start Uber Eats drone deliveries in Houston and Dallas before the end of the year.
(Photo: Roksenhorn / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)
