South San Francisco’s Zipline raises $1.5 billion as Walmart plans 300 more drone delivery sites
The self-flying delivery company is now valued at $21.5 billion and says it will expand U.S. factories and hiring.
Zipline, the South San Francisco company that delivers orders by self-flying drone, said Thursday it raised $1.5 billion from investors, valuing the company at $21.5 billion.
Investment firms Paradigm, WCM Investment Management and Layer Global led the round, joined by Fidelity, Uber, J.P. Morgan, ARK Invest, Salesforce Ventures and others, the company said. Zipline said it will use the money to expand its U.S. factories and hire as it builds a nationwide delivery network.
Walmart and Zipline also signed a new multi-year agreement to open 300 more drone delivery sites. The two have 21 active sites today, TechCrunch reported. Zipline said Uber is aiming for 1 million Zipline deliveries a day by 2029.
Instead of a driver in a car, a Zipline drone flies the order over traffic. Its home-delivery drones carry up to 8 pounds to customers within about 10 miles, TechCrunch reported. Zipline said its median order in October arrived 19 minutes after checkout, compared with 30-plus minutes for traditional delivery. It said it made more than 1 million deliveries in the Dallas-Fort Worth area this year.
Founded in 2014, Zipline started by flying blood to hospitals in Rwanda, began U.S. operations in 2020 and won federal air-carrier certification in 2022, TechCrunch reported. Zipline says its drones have flown 150 million commercial miles without a safety incident. Its announcement did not say whether any new sites will be in the Bay Area.
Source: Zipline via GlobeNewswire, Nov. 5, 2026; TechCrunch, Nov. 5, 2026