The South San Francisco-based company is raising $330 million in a new funding round, according to two sources and a filing obtained by Forbes. The funding values Zipline at about $4.2 billion, a 55% increase from its $2.7 billion valuation reached two years ago.
In an April 10 filing in Delaware, the company revealed a Series F funding round of that size that priced Zipline at $40.20 per share. The filing also included a Series F-1 extension of up to $20 million that could still be rolled into the round, meaning the exact total raised by Zipline could still fluctuate, according to one of the sources. The filing made no mention of a lead investor, nor could one be identified as of publication.
In a statement, Zipline confirmed it had raised new funding.
“We recently closed our Series F funding round at an increased valuation, which involved several new and existing investors,” the company wrote. “We are well capitalized to continue to grow our operations, including launching our new home delivery service.”
Past investors in the company, include Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, Katalyst Ventures, GV, Pactolus Ventures, Emerging Capital Partners and Reinvent Capital.
“We look at Zipline as the future of robotics,” Andy Wheeler, general partner at Google Ventures, told FLYING in a statement. “We think it’s pretty clear that there is going to be a massive transformation in instant delivery over the next 10 years towards automation and zero emission logistics. Zipline is at the forefront of that revolution and is poised to lead.”
Cofounder and CEO Keller Rinaudo Cliffton, a former professionally ranked rock climber, previously told Forbes that he co-founded the company in 2013 with Keenan Wyrobek, who is its chief technology officer. The company’s origins, however, date back to Romotive, a robotics toy startup that Rinaudo Cliffton launched in 2011 as part of former Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh’s Downtown Project in Las Vegas.
After pivoting to drones and moving to the Bay Area, Zipline’s cofounders initially aimed to corner the medical supply market, rather than retail goods. Alfred Lin, the Sequoia partner and former Zappos executive who ranked no. 7 on Forbes’ Midas List, led a Series A investment into the startup in 2015.
The company later raised from firms including Andreessen Horowitz, Slow Ventures, Katalyst Ventures and GV, the venture firm of Google parent Alphabet, among others. Pactolus Ventures, Intercorp, Emerging Capital Partners and Reinvent Capital had led its previous funding round in 2021. With the new funding, Zipline has raised more than $900 million to date, per data from startup tracker PitchBook.
Photo: Zipline cofounders Keller Rinaudo Cliffton and Keenan Wyrobek