Soon after Drones quads started roaming around, multitude of business' followed. They included racing focused organizations and manufactures, like TBS, FrSKY. Then there are agriculture based business opening up a whole new domain and succeeding in providing solutions.
Then a bunch of big boys started focusing on Drone-delivery businesses. From Alphabet, Amazon, Walmart, UPS and DHL have been testing and some even delivering packages by drones. Most of these companies focused mostly on last-mile logistics for food and retail, exception was DHL.
DHL has used drones to deliver blood samples and medicine to remote islands, as well as packages to remote mountain towns in one-third the time compared to a ground delivery vehicle. In more recent tests, DHL has developed fully automated “Packstations” that allow customers to insert a package that is delivered via drone with no human intervention.
Aid organizations are pushing for new breakthroughs. The Netherlands-based Wings for Aid is working on a drone prototype to carry more and go farther: Up to 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of cargo could be delivered to several points within 500 kilometers (310 miles), said Wesley Kreft, director of business development and innovation. In my opinion, WfA has more grasp of the needs in the remote areas where infrastructure is basically non-existent.
The concept of delivering a pizza or coffee to a hungry person is a fun and attractive one.
There is a another company, Zipline, a US company followed a similar path of that of the DHL and took it little further, gaining commercial traction by flying lifesaving medical supplies to thousands of rural clinics in Africa, instead.
Now Zipline has made another milestone, which ranked No. 39 on the 2019 CNBC Disruptor 50 list, has raised $190 million in venture funding and attained a $1.2 billion valuation from its investors. Its backers include Baillie Gifford, The Rise Fund (which is TPG’s global impact fund), Temasek, Alphabet’s investment arm GV and Katalyst Ventures. The funding brings Zipline’s total capital raised to $225 million.
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