Last month, Zipline a drone delivery startup delivered Cartons of blood to the Kagbayi District Hospital. This delivery wasn’t done by a dispatch rider but by a drone. The drone flew for five minutes before dropping its package. This happened in Rwanda, East Africa.
Presently, companies have recognised Zipline’s efforts and prospects as it has raised $25 million series B funding from Visionnaire Ventures joined by Sequoia capital and Andreessen Horowitz to expand its humanitarian delivery drone business in Rwanda, the US and other parts of the world.
With this new capital, it brings to $43 million it has raised from investors that include Google Ventures, Microsoft Cofounder, Paul Allen, and Yahoo founder Jerry Yang.
Interestingly, Rwanda is at the heart of this project. More than 150 medical deliveries are made per day supplying blood to over 21 transfusion centres using routes preprogrammed into the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. In addition, the Rwanda government intends to expand the service to it 11 million citizens. This funds raised by Zipline will go a long in promptly providing much-needed medical supplies to remote areas.
Recently, Rwanda has been exploring technology and innovation to boost its economy. So, this medical delivery via drones powered by the government and Zipline may not come as a surprise to many.
Zipline is a robotics company that builds autonomous drones designed to deliver vaccines, medicine, or blood on request from health workers operating in remote locations. It was founded in 2011.
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