We offer our view of Zipline because it is part of the total ARK Venture Fund portfolio. To see the most updated portfolio, please click here.
Drone delivery company Zipline operates in Africa, the US, and Japan, providing instant delivery service to businesses and customers through its Platform 1 (P1) and P2 drone systems. The company plans to deliver healthcare, food, and e-commerce items via drone.
ARK estimates[1] that drone delivery at scale could bring food and other packages to consumers in under 30 minutes for less than $1, cutting overall delivery costs by up to ~20X over the coming decades. In the meantime, today’s app delivery fees demonstrate that customers are willing to pay for higher price points.[2] Inexpensive drone delivery services are likely to completely reshape shopping habits and boost e-commerce penetration.
Zipline’s enthusiastic Co-founder and CEO, Keller Rinaudo Cliffton, is intensely focused on vertical integration. Prior to joining Zipline, in 2011, Mr. Rinaudo Cliffton founded Romotive—a smartphone-controlled robotics company—eventually transforming that company into Zipline in 2014. Previously CFO at Tesla from Mar 2017 – Mar 2019, Deepak Ahuja joined Zipline as Chief Business Officer and CFO in 2022.
Zipline has partnered with many organizations to make deliveries across verticals, including: The Government of Rwanda, Walmart, Sweetgreen, Toyota Tsusho, The MultiCare Partners System, Intermountain Health, Michigan Medicine, GNC, Pagliacci Pizza, Associated Couriers, and Jumia.
Zipline has a data advantage over peers with over 600,000 commercial flights completed to date.[3] Zipline’s scale and partnerships should provide strong barriers to entry as it competes to become the next generation instant delivery platform of choice.
Disclosures
We offer our view of Zipline because it is part of the total ARK Venture Fund portfolio. To see the most updated portfolio, please click here. Holdings subject to change. Not a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any specific security.
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Source: ARK Investment Management LLC.
Source: Washington Post, 2023. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/interactive/2023/delivery-app-doordash-grubhub-ubereats/
Source: https://techcrunch.com/2023/05/10/ziplines-new-drone-delivery-platform-attracts-more-us-customers/ . Note: Drone delivery competitor Wing, for example, completed ~300,000 commercial flights to date across the US, Europe, and Australia. https://wing.com/partner/
ARK’s statements are not an endorsement of any company or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any security. ARK and its clients as well as its related persons may (but do not necessarily) have financial interests in securities or issuers that are discussed. Certain of the statements contained may be statements of future expectations and other forward-looking statements that are based on ARK’s current views and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance, or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such statements.
