Zipline aims to become the logistics provider of the remote care future 

The news

The healthcare-focused drone delivery startup Zipline recently raised $250 million at a $2.75 billion company valuation. Zipline, founded in 2014, provides drone delivery of blood, vaccines, life-saving medications, and other essential supplies in rural areas of Africa. Read more on the deal on Techcrunch.

About Zipline

Since its launch, the company's drones have traveled more than 10 million miles and performed over 150,000 commercial deliveries. The company is now also active in the U.S. Most recently, Zipline partnered with Novant Health to deliver medical equipment, initiated a health and wellness product delivery partnership with Walmart, and signed service contracts with various hospital systems. 

The COVID-19 pandemic gave Zipline’s business a significant boost. The company said it is planning to deliver 2.4 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine by the end of 2021. Over the next few years, Zipline intends to focus fully on the healthcare sector and also, for example, deliver pharmaceutical prescriptions directly to patients' homes.

The bigger picture

Zipline and other medical logistics players could become major beneficiaries of the increasing adoption of telemedicine and the virtualization of hospitals. The less often patients are treated onsite in hospitals, the more frequent medical supplies have to come to their homes.

Zipline is a great example of a startup leveraging economies of scale in innovation. Its drones were initially far too expensive to be competitive in developed areas, with a solid transportation infrastructure in place. In turn, in the initial test areas in Rwanda, the drones were simply the only way to deliver medical supplies.

As efficiency increases, Zipline’s drones can begin to penetrate more competitive and developed markets.