Zipline, the California drone-delivery company, said Thursday it had raised $1.5 billion in a round that values the startup at $21.5 billion, according to TechCrunch¹.

TechCrunch reported that the financing was led by Paradigm, WCM Investment Management and Layer Global, with participation from Valor Equity Partners, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Uber, Tiger Global, J.P. Morgan, ARK Invest and Salesforce Ventures¹.

Alongside the raise, Zipline and Walmart reached a multi-year agreement to add 300 drone delivery sites in the United States, a jump from 21 active sites the two operate together today, TechCrunch said¹. The companies have had a drone-delivery agreement since 2021¹.

Techmeme, citing a Wall Street Journal report by Kelly Cloonan, said the $21.5 billion valuation is up from $7.85 billion after Zipline raised $600 million in January, and that the company plans to grow U.S. manufacturing². TechCrunch likewise said Zipline intends to use the new capital to expand U.S. manufacturing facilities and hire workers to build a nationwide drone delivery network¹.

Founded in 2014, Zipline began delivering blood by drone in Rwanda and later expanded in Africa; it started U.S. operations in 2020 and received FAA Part 135 air carrier certification in 2022, TechCrunch reported¹. The company now delivers food, retail, agricultural and health products in five African countries, several U.S. cities and Japan¹.

Its Platform 2 drones are designed to carry up to eight pounds within a 10-mile radius for home delivery, while larger Platform 1 drones can cover 120 miles round trip for enterprise and government customers, according to TechCrunch¹. The company said its share of delivery revenue grew from 10.8% to 34.9% between March and October¹.

TechCrunch did not report the January round or prior valuation highlighted on Techmeme^1,2. Neither account detailed terms of the Walmart pact beyond the site expansion, or a timeline for the manufacturing build-out^1,2.