Walmart to take drone delivery nationwide as Zipline raises $1.5B

Walmart will significantly scale up its drone delivery network in partnership with Zipline, which will operate the small unmanned aerial vehicles from 300 new store locations and has raised $1.5 billion in new funding to build out a nationwide drone delivery capacity, the companies announced on Thursday.

Zipline, the world’s largest drone delivery provider by miles flown, said it will use the capital to expand its U.S. manufacturing facilities and ramp hiring to meet demand for ultra-fast delivery by air.

Big retailers like Walmart (NASDAQ: WMT) and Amazon are racing to build out same-day and one-hour store-to-delivery networks of their own to meet growing customer expectations for speed and convenience, which is viewed as important to converting online shoppers to buyers. Drone delivery supplements last-mile ground delivery provided by gig-based drivers using digital delivery platforms for assignments. At Walmart, U.S., e-commerce sales grew 24% during the second quarter, with deliveries fulfilled from local stores up 43%.

Amazon recently said it plans to offer Prime Air drone delivery to nearly 500 U.S. communities by year’s end, covering about 30 million people, up from a dozen locations.

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