Zipline joins Google and Amazon in billion dollar game of drones club

Zipline International is a real sleeper in the race to build an autonomous delivery service using drones that is both feasible and has a genuine business case. Amazon, Google, even Domino’s Pizza, have spent millions over the past few years testing flying AVs in the hope they will be cheaper package carriers than humans in ugly brown Bahamas or a kid in a car with lighted Domino’s sign on top. But they are still frustrated by safety concerns and simple economics.

Meanwhile, an SF AV delivery startup called Zipline has just raised an additional $190 million in venture funding — brings its total capital raised to $225 million — and achieved a $1.2 billion valuation from its investors.

How did they do it? Founders Keller Rinaudo, William Hetzler and Keenan Wyrobek had some success some years back as the makers of Romo, an iPhone-powered robotic pet, but the young entrepreneurs quickly decided they wanted to do something with a bit more social impact.

They discovered that many people around the world die each year from lack of access to life-saving and critical medical products because of what is known as the last-mile problem: the inability to deliver critical medicine from a city to rural or remote locations due to lack of adequate transportation, communication or supply chain…