Zipline is an American robotics and logistics company operating the world's largest autonomous delivery service. After pioneering national-scale medical drone delivery in Rwanda, the company has grown into a global network that has flown more than 135 million autonomous miles and completed over 2.7 million commercial deliveries (1 million of those in the trailing 12 months alone) across more than 5,000 hospitals and health centers. U.S. consumer and healthcare delivery has become the growth engine: American deliveries now account for more than 70% of Zipline's daily volume worldwide, a reversal for a network historically anchored in African public health, and the company is now completing a delivery roughly every 20 seconds, up from about once a minute in early 2025. In 2025, Zipline commercially launched Platform 2, its quieter home-delivery system, in Pea Ridge, Arkansas and more than 20 Dallas-Fort Worth communities with Walmart and more than a dozen restaurant brands. In early 2026, backed by an $800M Series H round valuing the company at $7.6B, Zipline launched services in Houston and Phoenix and scaled its North Texas network to 16+ brands and public-space delivery points. In mid-2026 it added Austin and Cleveland (the latter via a Cleveland Clinic prescription-delivery partnership that went live August 3, 2026), partnered with food-technology platform Wonder for drone meal delivery launching January 2027, and was selected by BayCare to build Tampa Bay's first medical drone network. On August 17, 2026, Uber announced a strategic investment in and partnership with Zipline to bring drone delivery to Uber Eats nationwide, starting in Dallas and Houston by year-end 2026 and targeting 1 million drone deliveries a day by the end of 2029. Seattle and at least four additional U.S. states are next in the 2026 rollout.
Uber and Zipline announced a partnership on August 17 to bring autonomous drone delivery to Uber Eats customers across the United States, with Uber making a strategic investment in Zipline as part of the deal. First deployments begin in Dallas and Houston by year end within Zipline's existing US markets before expanding to dozens more cities, with the companies targeting 1 million drone deliveries a day by the end of 2029 and delivery times as fast as 5 to 10 minutes.
Cleveland Clinic began delivering prescription medications by Zipline drone to patients within a five-mile radius of its Beachwood, Ohio campus starting the week of July 27, in what it calls the first long-term prescription drone delivery program run by a major U.S. health system. Eligible patients already enrolled in the clinic's pharmacy home-delivery program can opt into drone delivery at no extra cost, with plans to expand to more locations and add lab samples, meals and supplies.
Zipline said on July 13 it hired Sendil Palani, a 17-year Tesla finance veteran, as CFO, former Waymo chief legal officer Kevin Vosen as its own CLO, and ex-Uber executive Allen Penn to lead commercial, as it accelerates its US expansion. The company said the number of businesses offering delivery through its app grew 13-fold in the first half of 2026, and it has now completed more than 2.5 million commercial deliveries, including 1 million in the past year alone. Zipline also launched its first US healthcare home-delivery service with Cleveland Clinic and opened food and retail delivery in Austin, Texas.
Zipline said on July 15 that the number of businesses offering delivery through its app grew 13-fold in the first half of 2026, pushing its lifetime total past 2.5 million autonomous commercial deliveries - including one million in the past year alone. The drone-logistics company launched consumer service in Austin and a home prescription-delivery partnership with Cleveland Clinic, its first healthcare home-delivery service, and CEO Keller Rinaudo Cliffton told CNBC he expects the US business to grow 15x over 2026. To scale, Zipline hired executives from Tesla, Waymo and Uber, including former Tesla finance vice president Sendil Palani as chief financial officer.
BayCare, the largest not-for-profit health system in West Central Florida, said on July 1 it will partner with Zipline to build a health care drone delivery network for lab samples, medications and critical supplies moved between facilities and directly to patients' homes. The service is expected to launch in late 2027, starting in the St. Petersburg-Clearwater area before expanding across the Tampa Bay region. It extends Zipline's push into on-demand U.S. medical logistics under its FAA-approved autonomous delivery operations.
Zipline's next-generation delivery system featuring a large fixed-wing autonomous drone that carries a tethered delivery droid. The P2 drone cruises at altitude, then lowers the droid on a tether to deliver packages weighing up to 8 lbs precisely to doorsteps, porches, or backyards - then retracts the droid and flies back. The system is 10x quieter than P1, requires no landing zone, and enables true last-mile home delivery in suburban and urban areas.
Launched in Pea Ridge, Arkansas and more than 20 Dallas-Fort Worth communities with Walmart and more than a dozen restaurant brands.
Zipline's original long-range delivery platform, optimized for enterprise, business, and government routes where speed and reliability matter more than dense urban doorstep service. It remains the backbone of many healthcare and public-sector logistics networks.
Active as Zipline's long-range platform for hospitals, health centers, and public-sector customers.
Payload CapacityUp to 4 lbs
Round-Trip Range~100 miles
Cruise Speed~65 mph
What's Next
Launch Uber Eats drone delivery in Dallas and Houston
Following the August 17, 2026 partnership and strategic investment from Uber, Zipline's first Uber Eats drone deployments are set to begin in Dallas and Houston by the end of 2026, ahead of an expansion to dozens more US cities and a joint goal of 1 million drone deliveries a day by the end of 2029.
Late 2026
Launch Seattle and additional U.S. states in 2026
With Austin (its third Texas metro) and Cleveland now live, Seattle is the next announced consumer market (via a Panera Bread / Flynn Group partnership); the FAA's environmental review for up to 75 Seattle-area delivery sites closed its public comment period in January 2026, but commercial service had not yet launched there as of July 2026. In Cleveland, Cleveland Clinic officially launched prescription drone delivery via Zipline on August 3, 2026 - the first long-term prescription drone delivery program run by a major U.S. health system - serving patients within a five-mile radius of its Beachwood, Ohio campus at no added cost, with plans to expand to more locations and add lab samples, meals and supplies. Zipline has targeted expansion into at least four new states in 2026, with cities such as Salt Lake City, Long Island, Jacksonville, and Rochester in the pipeline backed by the $800M Series H.
2026
Stand up 2027 U.S. healthcare and restaurant drone services
Several major U.S. launches are slated for 2027: BayCare's Tampa Bay medical drone network - Zipline's first Florida deployment, carrying prescriptions, lab samples, and supplies, beginning in late 2027 in the St. Petersburg-Clearwater area of Pinellas County before expanding into Hillsborough - drone meal delivery for food-technology platform Wonder across 100+ Texas locations, starting in Dallas in January 2027, and Advocate Health's hospital drone network, beginning in Charlotte before expanding to Chicago and Milwaukee, targeting more than 100,000 deliveries a year at full scope with additional plans for Georgia.
2027
Complete Rwanda's nationwide and urban expansion
The next major international milestone is executing Rwanda's new plan, funded by a $150M U.S. State Department pay-for-performance award: the new long-range Karongi distribution center - a $2M+ facility on the DRC border expected to operate 35 drones, serve roughly 200 health posts and 60 major facilities for about 2.8-2.9 million people, and create 45 local jobs - was targeted to begin operating in August 2026, but as of this update no official opening or ribbon-cutting had been publicly confirmed; construction was reported on track to complete by August. Next comes bringing Platform 2 into Kigali - Africa's first urban drone delivery network - in 2027, plus standing up Zipline's first overseas AI and robotics testing hub.
2026–2027
Operate under FAA Part 108 standardized BVLOS rules
Like every U.S. drone-delivery operator, Zipline has scaled by negotiating beyond-visual-line-of-sight waivers site by site. FAA Part 108 (NPRM published August 2025, 3,000+ comments) would replace that waiver regime with a standardized, performance-based framework for routine BVLOS operations, removing the permitting bottleneck on Zipline's multi-state expansion. The rule missed the 240-day deadline set by the June 2025 executive order (expired February 1, 2026) and has sat with the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs since July 10, 2026 - OIRA review of a significant rule can run up to 90 days, putting the earliest plausible release around October 2026, though industry analysts now expect a final rule closer to late 2026 or early 2027 followed by a 6-12 month implementation period. In an August 1, 2026 report, DOT chief of staff Pete Meachum said the delay is deliberate, meant to avoid locking today's detect-and-avoid technology into the rule and to prevent it from favoring incumbents; Zipline CEO Keller Rinaudo Cliffton said the resulting uncertainty is freezing private investment in the sector even though Zipline itself already holds federal BVLOS approvals.
Late 2026 - early 2027
Track Record
1 of 1 announced date hit
Scale manufacturing capacity for P2 demand
Target 2026–2027 · Resolved Jul 14, 2026
Zipline confirmed its tripled South San Francisco manufacturing facility now has the capacity to build 24,000 autonomous aircraft a year, exceeding the original 15,000-aircraft annual target set when the expansion was announced in September 2025.
Hit
Operations & Revenue
StatusActive
Actively operating the world's largest autonomous delivery network across four continents (US, Rwanda, Ghana, Japan, Nigeria, Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya), with lifetime deliveries past 2.7 million (1 million within the trailing 12 months) and U.S. deliveries now over 70% of daily volume worldwide - a reversal for a network historically anchored in African public health. Houston and Phoenix launched in early 2026; Austin (its third Texas metro) and Cleveland - a Cleveland Clinic home prescription-delivery partnership that completed its first deliveries August 3, 2026, Zipline's first long-term U.S. health-system drone program - went live in mid-2026. North Texas (DFW) scaled to 16+ brands and 25+ public delivery locations, with food-technology platform Wonder joining in June 2026 for Texas drone meal delivery beginning January 2027. In July 2026, BayCare selected Zipline to build Tampa Bay's first medical drone-delivery network (launching late 2027), and Advocate Health contracted with Zipline for what it calls the nation's largest hospital drone-delivery network, spanning Charlotte, Chicago, and Milwaukee starting in 2027. On August 17, 2026, Uber announced a strategic investment in and nationwide partnership with Zipline to bring drone delivery to Uber Eats, starting in Dallas and Houston by year-end 2026 and targeting 1 million drone deliveries a day by the end of 2029. Its South San Francisco factory has the capacity to build 24,000 autonomous aircraft a year, ahead of the 15,000-aircraft target set when the tripled facility was announced. Seattle is the next announced U.S. consumer market via a Panera Bread partnership with Flynn Group; Rwanda's new Karongi distribution center was targeted to begin operating in August 2026 but had no publicly confirmed opening as of this update.
Revenue Streams
Government & Public Health Delivery
Contracts with ministries of health and public agencies to deliver blood, vaccines, essential medicines, lab materials, and animal-health products through national or regional logistics networks.
U.S. Commercial Retail Delivery
Partnerships with Walmart and other merchants for instant delivery of retail goods, groceries, prescriptions, and health products to homes in active U.S. markets.
Restaurant Delivery
Home delivery for more than a dozen restaurant brands, including Chipotle, Crumbl, Blaze Pizza, Wendy's, Little Caesars, and Hawaiian Bros, using Platform 2.
U.S. Health System Delivery
Direct contracts with U.S. hospital and health systems - including Memorial Hermann, Cleveland Clinic, BayCare, and Advocate Health - for home and inter-facility delivery of prescriptions, lab samples, and medical supplies, distinct from the international government public-health contracts above.
Key Metrics
Employees
~1,600 (across six continents)
Est. Annual Revenue
Undisclosed commercial revenue from government, healthcare, retail, and restaurant delivery contracts; valuation $7.6B at March 2026 Series H close
Total Commercial Deliveries
2,700,000+ (1 million of those within the trailing 12 months alone)
Autonomous Miles Flown
135,000,000+
U.S. Share of Daily Volume
70%+ (Aug 2026) - a reversal for a network historically anchored in African public-health delivery; delivery rate now about one every 20 seconds, up from about one per minute in early 2025
Hospitals & Health Centers Served
5,000+
Valuation
$7.6B (Series H, March 2026)
Timeline
2026Surpasses 2 million deliveries and raises $600M+
Crosses 2 million commercial deliveries, raises more than $600M at a $7.6B valuation, and announces Houston and Phoenix as the first two markets in a broader 2026 U.S. expansion.
2026Rwanda expands toward nationwide and urban coverage
Rwanda signs a new expansion agreement covering nationwide autonomous logistics, a third distribution center in Karongi, Kigali deployment of Platform 2, and Zipline's first overseas AI and robotics testing hub.
2026Houston and Phoenix launch, $200M added to Series H
Zipline goes live in Houston (partnering with Memorial Hermann Health System) and Phoenix in early 2026. In March, it adds $200M to its Series H round - bringing the total to $800M - with Paradigm joining returning investors Fidelity, Baillie Gifford, Valor Equity Partners, and Tiger Global.
2026Advocate Health contracts for the nation's largest hospital drone network
Advocate Health announces a contract with Zipline to build what it calls the nation's largest hospital-based drone delivery network, moving prescriptions, lab samples, and medical supplies. At full scope the network is expected to carry out more than 100,000 deliveries a year across Charlotte, Chicago, and Milwaukee, with the first flights planned for 2027 in Charlotte and additional plans for Georgia.
2026North Texas network scales to 16+ brands and public-space delivery
By April 21, 2026, Zipline's North Texas network has grown to 16+ restaurant and retail brands in the DFW metroplex - including Popeyes, Hawaiian Bros, Taco Bueno, and local operators - and has expanded to more than 25 public delivery locations such as parks, UNT's campus, and the Rowlett Public Library. Flight volumes on its urban platform grew 50x in 2025 versus the prior year.
2026Adds Austin and partners with Wonder in Texas
In late June 2026, Zipline names Austin its third Texas metro (after Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston), with operations expected in summer or fall 2026, and announces a partnership with food-technology platform Wonder to bring on-demand drone meal delivery to 100+ Wonder locations across Texas - starting in Dallas in January 2027. By this point Zipline has flown more than 135 million autonomous miles and completed over 2.5 million commercial deliveries worldwide.
2026Selected to build Tampa Bay's first medical drone network
In July 2026, BayCare selects Zipline to build the Tampa Bay area's first healthcare drone-delivery network - Zipline's first Florida deployment - to move prescriptions, lab samples, and critical medical supplies. Service is slated to begin in late 2027 in Pinellas County before expanding into Hillsborough.
2026Austin and Cleveland go live; U.S. marketplace grows 13x in H1
On July 15, 2026, Zipline says the number of businesses offering delivery through its app grew 13x in the first half of 2026, with lifetime deliveries past 2.5 million (one million in the prior year alone). It launches consumer service in Austin and a home prescription-delivery partnership with Cleveland Clinic - its first healthcare home-delivery service - and hires executives from Tesla, Waymo, and Uber, including former Tesla finance VP Sendil Palani as CFO. CEO Keller Rinaudo Cliffton says he expects the U.S. business to grow 15x over 2026.
2026South San Francisco factory reaches 24,000-aircraft annual capacity
Alongside its July 2026 leadership hires, Zipline confirms its tripled South San Francisco manufacturing facility now has the capacity to build 24,000 autonomous aircraft a year, exceeding the 15,000-aircraft target set when the expansion was announced in September 2025.
2026Uber invests and partners to bring drone delivery to Uber Eats nationwide
Uber and Zipline announced a partnership on August 17, 2026 to bring autonomous drone delivery to Uber Eats customers across the United States, with Uber making a strategic investment in Zipline. First deployments begin in Dallas and Houston by the end of the year within Zipline's existing US markets before expanding to dozens more cities, with the companies targeting 1 million drone deliveries a day by the end of 2029 and delivery times of 5 to 10 minutes.
2025Commercially launches Platform 2 in the U.S.
Launches Platform 2 home delivery in Pea Ridge, Arkansas and more than 20 Dallas-Fort Worth communities, pairing Walmart with more than a dozen restaurant brands and pushing Zipline beyond medical logistics into mainstream consumer delivery.
2022Signs nationwide Rwanda expansion partnership
Announces a broad new partnership with Rwanda aimed at serving the entire country with instant logistics, opening Zipline's network to additional government agencies beyond healthcare.
2019Expands to Ghana and scales operations
Launches operations in Ghana, turning Zipline's public-health logistics model from a single-country proof point into a broader African delivery network.
2016Launches world's first national drone delivery service in Rwanda
Partners with the Government of Rwanda to launch the world's first national-scale drone delivery service, delivering blood, plasma, and medical supplies to remote clinics across the country. Drones launch from distribution centers and parachute packages to designated drop zones.
2014Founded by Keller Rinaudo Cliffton
Keller Rinaudo Cliffton, along with co-founders Will Hetzler and Keenan Wyrobek, founds Zipline with the goal of building a logistics system that gives people instant access to critical medical products.
Funding
Cumulative disclosed raise · dated rounds
Round
Date
Amount
Investors
Source
Series A–C
2014–2019
$250M+
Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Google Ventures, Katalyst Ventures
Series E
2021
$250M
Katalyst Ventures, Baillie Gifford, GV, Temasek, Goldman Sachs, The Rise Fund
Series F
2023
$330M
New and existing investors
Series H - Initial Tranche
January 2026
$600M
Fidelity Management & Research Company, Baillie Gifford, Valor Equity Partners, Tiger Global
Series H - Additional Tranche
March 2026
$200M (total Series H: $800M at $7.6B valuation)
Fidelity, Baillie Gifford, Valor Equity Partners, Tiger Global, Paradigm
