Zipline, a drone delivery startup whose aircraft carry medical supplies and food orders, is in talks to raise $1B at a roughly $20B valuation, more than double the $7.6B it was worth after its last round, according to The Information. The company has already raised about $2B, including $600M in January and another $200M in March. Investors are betting that the cost of flying a package by drone has dropped far enough to turn a niche into a real market, and that bet leans on the partnership Zipline announced with Uber in August, which pairs a shorter-range drone with grocery, takeout, and retail orders. Dallas and Houston get the first of those deliveries this year, and by the end of 2029 the two companies want to be running one million drone deliveries a day.
