Zipline Raises $1.5 Billion at $21.5 Billion Valuation as Walmart Adds 300 Drone Sites

The new sites would multiply the network the two companies run today. TechCrunch put the current number of active Walmart drone delivery sites with Zipline at 21. In its own announcement Walmart said the agreement "has the potential to expand" beyond the 300 sites, but it did not say where they will be or when they will open.

The valuation is also a big step up. When Zipline raised more than $600 million in January, Bloomberg reported that the round valued it at $7.6 billion. The latest round puts it close to three times that figure, a sign of how much investors will now pay for autonomous delivery companies that have shown they can operate at scale in the US.

Paradigm, WCM Investment Management and Layer Global led the round, the company said in a press release. Valor Equity Partners, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Uber, Tiger Global, J.P. Morgan, ARK Invest and Salesforce Ventures also took part. Zipline said it would use the money to expand its US manufacturing facilities and hire more workers as it builds a nationwide drone delivery network.

Walmart, the largest US retailer, has worked with Zipline since 2021. It said the two companies have now completed more than 2 million drone deliveries, with orders arriving in as little as 30 minutes where the service is available. Customers can order tens of thousands of eligible items through the Walmart app, Walmart.com or the Zipline app. The drones hover about 330 feet up and lower a tethered pod into a customer's front yard, backyard or driveway. Walmart noted that 90% of Americans live within 10 miles of one of its stores.

"Now, with Walmart, we're going to expand this tech to homes throughout the country," Zipline chief executive and co-founder Keller Cliffton said in Walmart's statement. Greg Cathey, Walmart's senior vice president for eCommerce fulfillment transformation, said customers keep using the service "for the convenience when they need something in minutes."

Zipline was founded in 2014 and started out delivering blood by drone in Rwanda, then expanded to Ghana and Nigeria. Its first US work, in 2020, was flying medical supplies for Novant Health in North Carolina. In 2022 the Federal Aviation Administration granted it Part 135 air carrier certification, which allows long-range commercial drone deliveries. It now carries food, retail, agricultural and health products in five African countries, several US cities and Japan.

Zipline flies two aircraft. Its Platform 2 drone handles home delivery, carrying up to eight pounds to customers within a 10-mile radius. The larger Platform 1 serves enterprise, business and government customers on routes of up to 120 miles round trip.

The company has been adding partners this year. In August it announced a partnership with Uber that it said would take it to 1 million deliveries a day. Uber is also one of the investors in the new round. Zipline said on Thursday that its share of delivery revenue rose from 10.8% to 34.9% between March and October.

The main open question is how quickly the 300 new Walmart sites can open. Neither company has given a rollout schedule, and DroneXL, a drone industry outlet, pointed out that under current FAA rules each new site needs its own approval.