Zipline, the South San Francisco company that delivers goods by autonomous drone, raised $1.5bn at a post-money valuation of $21.5bn, it announced on 5 November 2026.
Paradigm, WCM Investment Management and Layer Global led the round. Valor Equity Partners, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Uber, Tiger Global, J.P. Morgan, ARK Invest and Salesforce Ventures also invested. Zipline did not give the round a name and did not disclose its total funding to date.
The new valuation is close to three times the $7.6bn attached to the company in January 2026, when it raised more than $600m, according to DRONELIFE and Tech Startups. Zipline said the money would pay for more US manufacturing, more hiring and a delivery network that covers the whole country.
“Zipline is now one of the largest autonomous robotics companies in the world”Matt Huang, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Paradigm
What Zipline does
Zipline was founded in 2014 by Keller Rinaudo, Keenan Wyrobek and Will Hetzler, according to Tech Startups. It started out flying blood, vaccines and other medical supplies in Rwanda and Ghana before moving into consumer delivery in the US.
Its aircraft hover at around 330 feet and lower orders on a tether instead of landing, Tech Startups reported. Zipline said its medical deliveries help save more than 14,000 lives a year, and that in Côte d'Ivoire it is building a national network meant to serve more than 2,200 health facilities and 12 million people.
The company said its aircraft have flown 150 million commercial autonomous miles without a safety incident. It also described a flight-control upgrade that makes flights quieter and more energy efficient, and a next-generation aircraft designed to fly higher and carry heavier orders over longer distances.
Walmart, Uber and restaurants
Alongside the funding, Walmart and Zipline signed a new multi-year agreement to open 300 more drone delivery sites, with room to add more. Tech Startups said the two companies have worked together since 2021. DRONELIFE noted that no financial terms were given.
Uber, which announced an investment and partnership in August to bring Zipline deliveries to Uber Eats, is aiming with Zipline for one million drone deliveries a day by the end of 2029, starting in Zipline's existing markets. Food company Wonder is building storefronts and kitchens designed around Zipline, the company said.
Zipline said that among restaurants that have used it longest, its share of their delivery revenue rose from 10.8% to 34.9% between March and October, and their delivery sales grew 26%, with most of the increase coming from Zipline orders. DRONELIFE pointed out that these figures cover a selected group of established partners rather than the whole network.
How the service is growing
The company said it has made more than one million deliveries in the Dallas-Fort Worth area this year. In October its median order arrived 19 minutes after checkout, compared with more than 30 minutes for conventional delivery, and the median bakery order took 10 minutes.
"Zipline is now one of the largest autonomous robotics companies in the world," said Matt Huang, co-founder and managing partner of Paradigm. Alan Tu, a portfolio manager at WCM, pointed to the decade the team has spent on drone delivery, while Anton Levy of Layer Global said the aim now was to reach millions more people through partners such as Uber and Walmart.
The obstacles ahead
Drone delivery still faces hurdles. Tech Startups listed rules for flying beyond an operator's line of sight, noise and safety complaints from residents, limited payloads and the cost of running thousands of sites. Rivals include Amazon Prime Air and Alphabet's Wing.
Local opposition has already slowed competitors. DRONELIFE reported that residents of Westborough, Massachusetts, approved a bylaw restricting commercial drone operations after Amazon proposed a drone facility in the town, and that Amazon withdrew its application on 30 October and plans to file a revised one.
Company website: zipline.com