Zipline has secured another $200 million to support its expansion into drone delivery

US drone delivery and logistics startup Zipline has raised another $200 million, adding to its latest funding round originally announced in January.

“Things have moved a little faster than we expected,” founder and CEO Keller Clifton said in a video message posted on X that provided a broader update on the company.

The additional funds, which included participation from cryptocurrency investment firm Paradigm, pushed Zipline’s recent Series H round to $800 million. Fidelity Management & Research Company, Baillie Gifford, Valor Equity Partners, and Tiger Global participated in the seed tranche that valued the drone delivery startup at $7.6 billion.

Zipline has developed a drone delivery ecosystem that includes aircraft, launch and landing systems as well as logistics software. The company, founded in 2014, started out in Africa, where it used its self-driving drones to deliver blood in Rwanda. Zipline has expanded its reach and what its drones are used for in the years since. Today, its drones deliver food, retail, agriculture, and health products in five African countries, several cities in the United States, and Japan.

The funds are being used to accelerate Zipline’s expansion into at least four U.S. states this year. The company announced Houston, Phoenix and Seattle as new markets.

Clifton said in the video that Zipline has seen significant growth in its home delivery service, which it launched last year in the United States, noting that delivery volume growth exceeded its expectations in January and February.

“We actually expect our growth to accelerate over the next three months, compared to 2025,” he added. The growth was driven by customers using drones multiple times a day and placing larger orders, Clifton said.

“In the last three weeks, we have already seen the average quantity of items per basket increase by more than 20% with customers ordering all the time from Zipline,” he said, adding that in response, the company will double the number of brands on the app over the next 30 days.

Zipline’s home delivery service uses Zipline Platform 2 drones, which are designed to carry up to eight pounds and travel to customers within a 10-mile radius. Its larger Platform 1 aircraft are used for long-range enterprise, corporate and government deliveries that can cover 120 miles round-trip. The P2 platform started in Pea Ridge, Arkansas, and the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex with Walmart and more than a dozen restaurant brands.

The startup remains intent on growing its services outside the United States. Clifton noted that Zipline has just secured a new nationwide contract across Rwanda that will allow it to launch its Platform 2 autonomous drone delivery service in major cities there. Zipline is also opening a third distribution center to help it serve every hospital and health facility across the country, Clifton said.