Emerging Capital Partners, others back drone operator
Zipline – an on-demand drone delivery service with a presence in Rwanda, Ghana and the US – has raised $250 million in new funding to help it accelerate the development of a new model for instant logistics.
”We are thrilled to welcome new investors Fidelity, Intercorp, Emerging Capital Partners and Reinvent Capital this round alongside the ongoing support from leading investors Baillie Gifford, Temasek, and Katalyst Ventures,” says the company in a statement.
With the new funding, Zipline will continue to advance its integrated service, including its autonomy platform, aircraft, fulfillment systems, and operations. The funding will also fuel the company’s continued expansion into new industries and geographies, transforming systems like healthcare and commerce with instant logistics.
This year Zipline has accelerated all aspects of its business and operations:
– Expanded service hours in Rwanda to offer the first 24/7 autonomous delivery service in the world.
– Signed a partnership with the Ministry of Health in Ghana to scale to four additional distribution centres that will cover 24 million people – 90% of the country’s population.
– Helped partners in the US and in Africa respond quickly to the Covid-19 pandemic, distributing the Covid-19 vaccine and PPE in Ghana and transporting PPE in North Carolina with Novant Health.
– Entered Japan through a first-of-its-kind strategic operational partnership with Toyota Group.
– Announced a partnership with Walmart to bring on-demand delivery of health and wellness products to the US.
– Signed new partnerships with Nigeria’s Kaduna and Cross River States to deliver medical supplies, including vaccines, blood and medicines.
– Partnered with Pfizer to design and test an end-to-end delivery solution to safely, efficiently, and equitably deliver all Covid-19 vaccines in countries where Zipline operates.
– Surpassed ten million autonomous miles flown, two million vaccine doses distributed and over 150,000 commercial deliveries completed.
When Zipline launched in Rwanda in 2016, the company set out to serve 21 hospitals in the first year. It was hard – integrating systems, fine tuning hardware, on-boarding new facilities, pioneering new systems to integrate into civilian airspace, to name a few. This year, when Zipline launches in Kaduna State, Nigeria, it will serve 1,000 new facilities, onboarded with custom-built, proprietary software.
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