{"id":28552,"date":"2026-03-23T22:15:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T22:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=28552"},"modified":"2026-03-23T22:15:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T22:15:12","slug":"zipline-snaps-up-another-200m-to-fuel-its-drone-delivery-expansion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=28552","title":{"rendered":"Zipline snaps up another $200M to fuel its drone delivery expansion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p id=\"speakable-summary\" class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">U.S. autonomous drone delivery and logistics startup Zipline has raised another $200 million, adding to a recent funding round originally announced in January.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThings have moved a little faster than we expected,\u201d founder and CEO Keller Cliffton said in a <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Keller\/status\/2035833117701972131?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">video message<\/a> posted on X that provided a broader update on the company.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The additional funds, which included participation from crypto investment firm <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/matthuang\/status\/2035903777648292111?s=20\">Paradigm<\/a>, has pushed Zipline\u2019s recent Series H round to $800 million. Fidelity Management &amp; Research Company, Baillie Gifford, Valor Equity Partners, and Tiger Global participated in the initial tranche that valued the drone delivery startup at <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2026\/01\/21\/zipline-charts-drone-delivery-expansion-with-600m-in-new-funding\/\">$7.6 billion.<\/a> <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Zipline has developed a drone delivery ecosystem that includes the aircraft, launch and landing systems, as well as logistics software. The company, founded in 2014, got its start in Africa, where it used its autonomous drones to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2022\/12\/15\/zipline-is-now-the-national-drone-service-provider-for-rwanda\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">deliver blood in Rwanda<\/a>. Zipline has expanded its reach and what its drones are used for in the years since. Today, its drones deliver food, retail, agriculture, and health products in five African countries, several cities in the United States, and Japan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The funds are being used to accelerate Zipline\u2019s expansion to at least four U.S. states this year. The company has announced Houston, Phoenix, and Seattle as new markets. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Zipline has seen considerable growth in a home delivery service that launched last year in the United States, Cliffton said in the video, noting that delivery volume growth beat its forecast in January and February.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019re actually expecting to accelerate our growth over the next three months, relative to 2025,\u201d he added. Cliffton said the growth was being driven by customers using the drones multiple times a day and to make larger orders.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-techcrunch-inline-cta\">\n<div class=\"inline-cta__wrapper\">\n<p>Techcrunch event<\/p>\n<div class=\"inline-cta__content\">\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"inline-cta__location\">San Francisco, CA<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"inline-cta__separator\">|<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"inline-cta__date\">October 13-15, 2026<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIn the last three weeks, we\u2019ve actually seen the average amount of stuff per basket increased by more than 20% with customers ordering all the time from Zipline,\u201d he said, adding that in response the company is doubling the number of brands on the app over the next 30 days.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"speakable-summary\">Zipline\u2019s home delivery service uses Zipline\u2019s Platform 2 drones, which are designed to carry up to eight pounds and travel to customers within a 10-mile radius. Its larger Platform 1 drones are used for long-range deliveries for enterprise, business, and government that can cover 120 miles round trip. The P2 platform started in Pea Ridge, Arkansas, and the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex with Walmart, and more than a dozen restaurant brands.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The startup is still intent on growing its services outside of the United States. Cliffton noted that Zipline just closed a new national-scale contract across Rwanda that will allow it to launch its Platform 2 autonomous drone delivery service in major cities there. Zipline is also opening a third distribution center to help it serve every single hospital and health facility throughout the country, Cliffton said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2026\/03\/23\/zipline-snaps-up-another-200m-to-fuel-its-drone-delivery-expansion\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>U.S. autonomous drone delivery&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28553,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[249],"tags":[16372,5603,10408],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28552"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}