Healthcare drone delivery startup Zipline has raised $190 million in a new round of funding, taking its valuation to over $1 billion. The new funding will be used to further expand its reach across Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Americas. Zipline operates autonomous drones across remote areas that are hard to reach by road, airlifting medicines during emergencies.
Now Zipline, which ranked No. 39 on the 2019 CNBC Disruptor 50 list, has raised $190 million in venture funding and attained a $1.2 billion valuation from its investors. Its backers include Baillie Gifford, The Rise Fund (which is TPG’s global impact fund), Temasek, Alphabet’s investment arm GV and Katalyst Ventures. The funding brings Zipline’s total capital raised to $225 million.
CEO Keller Rinaudo, who co-founded Zipline with Keenan Wyrobek and William Hetzler in 2011, says that with the new funding, Zipline will be able to set up delivery hubs at 2,600 health facilities in Rwanda and Ghana by the end of this year. And it will soon be making deliveries of medical supplies in the U.S., starting in North Carolina, where it has secured permission from the FAA to do so.
“There is a growing feeling around the world that technology is not benefitting the vast majority of people,” said Keller Rinaudo, CEO of Zipline, in a statement. “The old conventional wisdom has been that building a successful technology company requires exploiting people’s personal information or hijacking their attention. Zipline wants to establish a new model for success in Silicon Valley by showing the world that the right technology company with the right mission and the best team can help improve the lives of every person on the planet.”
Source: CNBC