The U.S. State Department awarded Zipline a $150 million financial reward, a huge boost over three years. Zipline, a leading American autonomous and drone-delivery company, demonstrated its dedication and potential through its performance and reliability. The largest drone delivery service will soon be working towards accelerating the scalability of health operations in five African regions. The Zipline was developed in 2016, and has largely reshaped the medical logistics via autonomous drones and boxing the crucial supplies, mainly to remote areas.
This funding well suits the new U.S. approach to elevate private-sector innovation, centralise focus on sustainability and develop an idea for foreign aid. The primary efforts are to focus on improving Africa’s health equity while sincerely attending to the financial responsibilities that are on participating governments.
The delivery service will be covering a total of five African nations, namely Ghana, Kenya, Cote d'Ivoire, Rwanda and Kenya. This funding is an important and special one of the first crucial new global health aid after the Trump administration’s tension regarding foreign assistance, the dispersion of USAID and the announcement of the ‘America First’ worldwide health smart strategy. The officials are ready with the agreement to collaborate with Zipline, as Zipline will be contributing as a model for the newest shift of the U.S. global health support.
The Zipline, in 2016, already proved its potential in the drone-related medical logistics, later serving vaccines, blood and important medicines to the unreached regions and people. After this funding, the daily delivery capacity might expand and allow the company to reach an infinite number of people throughout the continent.
The CEO of Zipline Africa, Caitlin Burton, said, “The company’s on-demand delivery system identifies the long-term minus point in the African health supply chains. The health system is not reaching most of the population, which is not fair, and cannot be resolved with the technology you have. The traditional U.S. aid has been disappointing multiple times and has lacked true impact.”
This deal is different from the traditional foreign aid, as this reward is in progress based on a pay-for-performance model, along with the government’s participation in signing contracts and promising to make the running logistics payments, effectively reaching $400 million. The State Department officials stated that the idea fosters sustainability while accelerating private-sector innovation.
Mansi Kadam is a market research writer with over 3 years of experience analyzing trends in the healthcare industry. At Towards Healthcare, she covers innovations in medical sector, sustainability initiatives, and the evolving regulatory landscape.
