Saving lives, one drone at a time

Zipline is the world’s first drone delivery service providing life-saving medicines to isolated communities otherwise considered unreachable. To date, they’ve made well over 14,000 deliveries in areas across Rwanda and Ghana. Currently, the team is in advanced talks with the local government to not only bring those services to the Philippines, but potentially turn the country into Zipline’s regional headquarters.

The drones, called Zips, are electric airplanes weighing in at roughly 35 pounds. Designed and manufactured by Zipline, they navigate to and from their destinations via an onboard chip. They are launched from distribution centers, and are tracked throughout their journeys by trained local operators.

Situated in perhaps the coolest workspace in Silicon Valley–a ranch in Half Moon Bay just south of San Francisco–Zipline’s US team is hard at work testing out innovations that will soon go on to save countless lives around the world. In this video, key members of Zipline’s team speak to us about the joys of purposeful work and how they plan to bridge 7,107 islands with a fleet of unmanned drones delivering life-saving cargo.

This visit to Zipline’s ranch headquarters was organized by StartUp Village as part of their ENGAGE: Silicon Valley Immersion program. ENGAGE brings Philippine startups, entrepreneurs, and corporate executives to the global epicenters of innovation.

If you’re interested in joining the next leg of the program, slated for March 2 to 6, 2020, you can find out more at the ENGAGE: Silicon Valley Immersion program page.