Zipline adds ex-Tesla, Uber, Waymo execs as U.S. drone delivery scales

South San Francisco startup Zipline is adding former Tesla and Waymo execs to its C-suite, and bringing on a former Uber executive to lead its commercial expansion, as the company scales its drone delivery service into new U.S. and international markets.

Since Zipline started up about twelve years ago, its fully electric, autonomous drones have been used to make more than 2.5 million commercial deliveries. The drones can carry items weighing up to 8 pounds. They have been used to deliver everything from life-saving vaccines, blood and anti-venom doses, to burritos and personal pizzas. Customers generally order via Zipline’s app.

Little Caesars, Chipotle and Cleveland Clinic are among the U.S. businesses Zipline works with today, along with retail partners like Walmart and over 100 small businesses.

The company’s CEO and co-founder Keller Rinaudo estimates that Zipline is now making one drone delivery every 20 seconds, up from one per minute in early 2025 when Zipline ranked at No. 46 on CNBC’s annual Disruptor 50 list.

One million of its deliveries to-date were conducted within the last 12 months, the company said, and roughly 70% of its daily delivery volume takes place in the U.S.

That’s a big shift from Zipline’s early days when it focused on drone deliveries of medical essentials and humanitarian aid to clinics and farms in Rwanda and Ghana. Zipline’s business in Africa is also growing, Rinaudo said, with development deals and expansion underway, some with the help of the U.S. State Department.

Rinaudo is fond of saying Zipline works to make orders for delivery feel as effortless as “teleportation.” Its fastest order-to-delivery time has been about five minutes for some orders in Dallas.

With the company’s newest healthcare partner, Cleveland Clinic, Zipline will be offering “healthcare home delivery service” in a suburb of Cleveland this month, allowing patients to get prescriptions flown to their homes, at no additional cost to start.

Joining the venture-backed startup as its new chief financial officer this month is former Tesla vice president of finance, Sendil Palani.

Palani spent about 17 years working for Elon Musk’s electric vehicle maker, and told CNBC he views Zipline as a similarly, mission-driven organization with related operations from precision manufacturing to maintaining charging infrastructure.

Zipline also has the potential to eliminate traffic congestion and pollution associated with traditional deliveries by air and on the ground, Palani said, while saving human and animal lives with its rapid deliveries, which can be made over damaged roads in the aftermath of extreme weather or other disasters.

Today, Zipline has the capacity to make 24,000 drones per year at its South San Francisco factory. Palani, who started at Tesla when the company was making just one, fully electric vehicle per day, sees analogies to the years when Tesla started mass-manufacturing its…