Founded in 2014, Zipline initially focused on delivering blood via drones in emergency situations to areas in rural Rwanda. Its founding objective was to “use drones to deliver blood and save lives”. It became apparent that it could also help healthcare systems transform their supply chain by significantly increasing access to medical supplies such as blood while simultaneously reducing product wastage and cost.

Today its operations are predominately in Africa, where traditional delivery companies perform poorly due to inadequate road infrastructure. From powering Rwanda’s national blood delivery network to rolling out Ghana’s Covid-19 vaccine distribution programme, Zipline is transforming the way medical products can be transported.

Zipline now operates the world’s largest autonomous delivery system reaching around 25 million people globally. The company is currently working with healthcare providers in the US to deliver prescriptions and medical products, making healthcare more accessible, convenient, and better for the environment. 

Rural Africa was where CEO Keller Rinaudo Cliffton chose to prove both the technology and business model of Zipline. Rwanda combined a challenging medical logistics environment with a government open to innovation. For Cliffton, it proved the perfect environment for the kind of customer-centric development he envisioned when he founded the company.

in April 2018.