Zipline banks $1.5B, valuation nearly triples as Walmart drone plans balloon

Zipline closed a $1.5 billion funding round that puts the drone delivery company at a $21.5 billion valuation. Paradigm, WCM Investment Management and Layer Global led the raise. The cash is earmarked for expanding US manufacturing, adding staff and building out the delivery network.

The checkbook came out in force. Valor Equity Partners, Fidelity, Uber, Tiger Global, J.P. Morgan, ARK Invest and Salesforce Ventures all climbed aboard. The new mark is roughly triple the $7.6 billion valuation Zipline carried in January. Paradigm, a crypto-focused firm that has been pushing into AI and robotics, was already an investor, according to Cryptopolitan. Co-founder Matt Huang called Zipline 'one of the largest autonomous robotics companies in the world.'

Retail muscle is coming too. Walmart plans to grow its drone delivery footprint with Zipline to 300 new sites, up from the 21 it runs today. The program has already notched more than two million deliveries, with eligible orders landing in under 30 minutes, and Walmart executive Greg Cathey says shoppers come for the novelty and stay for the convenience. Walmart also sits within 10 miles of 90% of Americans, which makes the math a lot friendlier.

Zipline started in 2014 flying blood supplies in Rwanda before spreading across Africa. A proposed Côte d'Ivoire network would reach 2,200 healthcare facilities and 12 million people. Stateside, it began medical deliveries in 2020, won FAA Part 135 certification in 2022, and this year logged 150 million miles of autonomous commercial service plus more than a million deliveries in the Dallas–Fort Worth area.

Whether any of that prints money is an open question. Zipline posted a 19-minute median delivery time in October and grew its share of delivery revenue at select restaurants from 10.8% to 34.9%, but neither stat proves profitability. Grand View Research pegs global drone logistics revenue at $1.61 billion in 2024, climbing to $16.15 billion by 2030 at a 48.1% annual clip, though that covers the whole industry rather than one operator. A 2024 McKinsey survey found 76% of respondents across six countries open to switching to drones, versus 53% in the US.

Competitors are moving fast. Amazon Prime Air is targeting nearly 500 US cities and towns by the end of 2026, while Wing plans to cover more than 270 Walmart locations by 2027. Noise complaints are already surfacing, with IEEE Spectrum documenting gripes about Amazon drones in Baton Rouge, and aviation land-use specialist David Ison told the outlet that public outreach has been 'more of an afterthought than it should have been.' Zipline claims 68% less sound exposure per flight based on internal modeling, and the FAA's beyond-visual-line-of-sight rule is still just a proposal, so nationwide scale hinges on regulators and neighbors alike.