A logistics company that operates autonomous delivery drones to deliver medicine, food, and retail goods, especially in hard-to-reach areas.
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Steep re-rating since 2023 ($4.2B to $7.6B confirmed primary in ~3 years) as US healthcare and retail drone-delivery contracts (Walmart, hospital systems) scale toward commercial proof points; Series H raised in two tranches within ~2 months, suggesting strong investor demand. Figures near $11.2B quoted for the March 2026 tranche trace to secondary-market composite prices dated months later, not to the round itself. CFO Deepak Ahuja (ex-Tesla/Verily, widely read as an 'IPO readiness' hire) left Zipline for Redwood Materials in May 2026. No S-1 filed; Forge Global's own IPO tracker states the IPO date is 'currently unknown.'
As of 2026-09-13 · live via greenhouse's public job board
+102 more roles across 26 other teams.
See all open roles at Zipline →Zipline designs and operates autonomous electric aircraft and their ground systems for delivering small payloads. Platform 1 is a catapult-launched fixed-wing aircraft that drops a parachute-borne package; Platform 2 hovers and lowers a tethered container to the delivery point. It entered service delivering blood in Rwanda in 2016 and has since announced Walmart deliveries in the US and a partnership with Uber Eats.
| Date | Type | What |
|---|---|---|
| Aug 17, 2026 | Milestone | Uber and Zipline announced a partnership to offer Zipline delivery in the Uber Eats app |
| Jun 2025 | Milestone | Zipline's patent on the acoustic system, US 12,322,292, granted June 3 and assigned by Zipline to SARA on June 20 |
| Apr 8, 2025 | Milestone | Platform 2 deliveries for Walmart customers in Mesquite, Texas, announced |
| Sep 18, 2023 | Milestone | The FAA authorized Zipline to fly beyond visual line of sight without visual observers |
| Mar 15, 2023 | Milestone | Platform 2 unveiled: the aircraft hovers about 300 feet up while a tethered container is lowered to the delivery point |
| Aug 2, 2022 | Milestone | SARA sued Zipline alleging patent infringement and trade-secret misappropriation; Zipline said its system was independently developed |
| Jun 2022 | Milestone | Zipline announced an FAA Part 135 air carrier certificate (June 21) and an onboard acoustic detect-and-avoid system |
| Apr 2022 | Milestone | Lancet Global Health study of 12,733 drone blood orders in Rwanda: median 41 minutes against an estimated 139 by road; no control group |
| Nov 18, 2021 | Milestone | Walmart and Zipline announced deliveries in Pea Ridge, Arkansas |
| Feb 24, 2021 | Patent filed | US 2024/0140629 A1 Autonomous vehicle delivery system |
| Oct 14, 2016 | Milestone | Platform 1 entered service: the Government of Rwanda began using it to deliver blood from a hub in Muhanga District to hospitals |
| Sep 21, 2016 | Patent filed | US 11,066,184 Automated recovery system for unmanned aircraft |
| May 6, 2016 | Milestone | Patent assignment records show the change of name from Romotive, Inc. to Zipline International Inc. |
| Mar 28, 2016 | Patent filed | US 11,807,361 Vision based calibration system for unmanned aerial vehicles |
| Oct 6, 2015 | Patent filed | US 9,997,080 Decentralized air traffic management system for unmanned aerial vehicles |
| Jan 22, 2015 | Patent filed | US 9,489,852 Unmanned aerial vehicle management system |
| 2014 | Milestone | Investor Sequoia Capital says Keller Rinaudo shut Romotive's toy-robot business and turned the company to medical drone delivery |
Patents. The listed patents cover the delivery management system, decentralized air traffic management, vision-based calibration and line-capture recovery, plus a pending application describing a tethered-delivery architecture; the earliest filings were first assigned to Romotive.
No acquisitions on record.
Zipline International Inc. designs and operates autonomous electric aircraft and their ground systems for delivering small payloads. The company began as Romotive, Inc., a maker of smartphone-controlled toy robots led by Keller Rinaudo (now Keller Rinaudo Cliffton); investor Sequoia Capital says he shut that business and turned the company to medical drone delivery in 2014. Patent assignment records show the change of name from Romotive, Inc. to Zipline International Inc. on May 6, 2016; the earliest filings were first assigned to Romotive. The first system, now called Platform 1, is a fixed-wing aircraft launched by catapult that drops a parachute-borne package; its patents describe recovery by a capture line instead of a runway landing. Listed patents cover the delivery management system (priority January 2015), decentralized air traffic management (October 2015), vision-based calibration (March 2016) and line-capture recovery (September 2016).
Platform 1 entered service on October 14, 2016, when the Government of Rwanda began using it to deliver blood from a hub in Muhanga District to hospitals in the west of the country. A retrospective study in The Lancet Global Health (April 2022), led by University of British Columbia and Rwanda Biomedical Centre researchers, covered 12,733 drone-delivered blood orders to 20 hospitals; it reported a median drone delivery time of 41 minutes against an estimated 139 minutes by road (Google Maps estimate) and a 67% reduction in blood-unit expirations at 12 months; it had no control group. Zipline launched in Ghana on April 24, 2019, and Walmart and Zipline announced deliveries in Pea Ridge, Arkansas, on November 18, 2021. On June 21, 2022 Zipline announced an FAA Part 135 air carrier certificate, and on September 18, 2023 the FAA authorized it to fly beyond visual line of sight without visual observers.
Platform 2 was unveiled on March 15, 2023. Its aircraft hovers about 300 feet up while a small tethered container, which Zipline calls a droid, is lowered to the delivery point; the aircraft docks and recharges at a fixed station. A tethered-delivery architecture is described in Zipline's pending US application 'Autonomous vehicle delivery system' (priority February 24, 2021). Platform 2 deliveries for Walmart customers in Mesquite, Texas, were announced on April 8, 2025. The company says it completed one million commercial deliveries by April 19, 2024 and two million by January 21, 2026.
Zipline announced an onboard acoustic detect-and-avoid system in June 2022. On August 2, 2022 Scientific Applications & Research Associates (SARA) sued Zipline in the Northern District of California (No. 3:22-cv-4480), alleging infringement of SARA's US Patent 7,606,115, trade-secret misappropriation and unfair competition; Zipline said the system was independently developed and the suit lacked merit. Google Patents shows that Zipline's own patent on the acoustic system, US 12,322,292, was granted June 3, 2025 and assigned by Zipline to SARA on June 20, 2025; SARA is its listed assignee, so it is not in the table below. No public statement of how the lawsuit ended was found. On August 17, 2026 Uber and Zipline announced a partnership to offer Zipline delivery in the Uber Eats app, with an Uber investment of undisclosed size. No acquisitions by Zipline were found.
Profile as of Sep 19, 2026.
| Round | Date | Valuation | Lead |
|---|---|---|---|
| Series H | 2026-01-20 | $7.6B+52% | Valor Equity Partners (also Fidelity Management & Research, Baillie Gifford, Tiger Global) |
| Series G | 2024-06-01 | $5.0B+19% | Undisclosed -- no tier-1 outlet covered this June 2024 round directly; only low-quality aggregators mention Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust as a participant, with no lead identified anywhere |
| Series F | 2023-04-01 | $4.2B+250% | Baillie Gifford and Temasek (also Katalyst Ventures, Intercorp, Sequoia, a16z) |
| Series D | 2019-03-01 | $1.2B+500% | Baillie Gifford and The Rise Fund (new investor) |
| Series B | 2016-11-01 | $200M+167% | Visionnaire Ventures (also Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Subtraction Capital, Jerry Yang) |
| Series A | 2015-07-01 | $75M | Sequoia Capital (partner Alfred Lin) -- medium confidence, consistent across secondary sources but no primary 2015 article recovered |
No upcoming rounds currently reported.
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| Vehicle | How you get exposure | Share of the vehicle | Who can buy |
|---|---|---|---|
| ARK Venture Fund Interval fund | Held directly | 1.74% of the fund | US investors, through brokers that carry the fund. Not exchange-traded. |
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| Status | S-1 Not Filed |
|---|---|
| Notes | Forge Global's own IPO tracker states the date is 'currently unknown.' CFO Deepak Ahuja, previously read as an 'IPO readiness' hire, left for Redwood Materials in May 2026. |
| Source | CNBC/Electrek, May 2026 (Ahuja departure); Forge Global IPO tracker |
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