Zipline, a company that makes delivery drones, recently celebrated a big achievement: completing its 1 millionth delivery to customers. Now, they’re looking to team up with restaurants to keep growing.
Based in San Francisco, Zipline creates, builds, and runs drones that can deliver items without needing a pilot. They serve a wide range of clients, from over 4,700 hospitals like the Cleveland Clinic to big companies like Walmart and GNC.
Investors, including Sequoia Capital and Google Ventures, have given them over $500 million in funding. Zipline has also been recognized as one of CNBC’s Disruptor 50 companies.
Their drones, which don’t produce emissions, have flown over 70 million miles across four continents and delivered more than 10 million products.
For their 1 millionth delivery, they transported two bags of IV fluid from a distribution center in Ghana to a local health center.
Zipline is expanding its services to include partnerships with companies like Panera Bread in Seattle, Memorial Hermann Health System in Houston, and Jet’s Pizza in Detroit.
The CEO, Keller Rinaudo Cliffton, shared that 70% of their deliveries happened in the last two years. Looking ahead, they aim to do 1 million deliveries every day.
Rinaudo Cliffton mentioned that their focus is on healthcare, quick commerce, and food delivery markets. They want to work with the best brands and institutions in these areas.
Their move into restaurant partnerships makes sense as more people want fast food delivery. Zipline is already delivering food from Walmart to customers, so teaming up with other restaurants is a natural next step.
“We need to start using vehicles that are light, fast, autonomous, and zero-emission,” Rinaudo Cliffton said. “Delivering in this way is 10 times as fast, it’s less expensive… and relative to the traditional delivery apps that most restaurants will be working with, we triple the service radius, which means you actually [get] 10 times the number of customers who are reachable via instant delivery.”
According to Ron Bellamy, the Chief Operating Officer of a Panera franchisee, Zipline deliveries for some Panera locations in Seattle are expected to start next year.
He mentioned that delivery continues to grow for their business, even in a time of rising prices. The costs with Zipline are expected to be similar to what they currently pay for third-party delivery services, with the hope that the cost will decrease over time.
“I’m encouraged about it, not just in terms of what I can do for the business, but as a consumer, I think at the end of the day if it is economical, and it delivers a better overall experience, then the consumer will speak,” Bellamy said.
