Jumia partners with Zipline to launch on-demand drone package delivery in remote areas of Africa

Jumia, the African e-commerce company, has joined forces with drone-delivery startup Zipline to launch an on-demand drone delivery in remote areas of Ghana, the companies announced Thursday. They launched the pilot program and testing a few months ago in Ghana and plan to expand the service to Nigeria and Côte d’Ivoire in the near future.

As part of the partnership, Jumia will integrate Zipline’s automated and on-demand delivery system with its existing distribution network to enable customers to receive instant, on-demand delivery of exactly the products they want, exactly when they want them and from the comfort of their homes.

Jumia’s spokesman told Reuters that the new partnership is part of Jumia’s attempt to reach its growing customer base in remote parts of Ghana, which make up about 27% of the company’s deliveries.

“Using the latest instant logistics technology will allow Jumia to offer our consumers on-demand delivery of the products they need – instantly,” said EVP Jumia Group’s COO, Apoorva Kumar, in a statement.

Kumar added, “Zipline’s instant logistics system will provide fast and convenient access. This will support Jumia’s commitment to sustainability and innovation and provide much-needed access to rural and remote areas where conventional delivery services have challenges.”

Jumia, which operates in 11 African countries and has more than 30 warehouses and 3,000 drop-off and pick-up stations in its logistics network, is an online marketplace for vendors and food sellers, with associated services including logistics and payments.

Jumia was also the first African tech start-up to list on the New York Stock Exchange in 2019. The company currently has a market cap of $741 million, according to Refinitiv data.

We first wrote about Zipline back in 2019 after the Half Moon Bay, California-based drone startup demonstrated its medical supply drones for the US military. Zipline first made a name for itself in Rwanda and Ghana, where the startup delivered blood, vaccines, life-saving medications, and other emergency medical supplies in remote villages using its autonomous electric drones. Today, Zipline has grown exponentially and expanded its autonomous aircraft delivery service to many other countries in Africa and around the world.

Meanwhile, Zipline not only serves remote villages in Africa, last year the company inked a deal with Walmart to launch an autonomous aircraft delivery service in Northwest Arkansas.

Founded in 2014 by Keenan Wyrobek, Keller Rinaudo, and Will Hetzler, the Half Moon Bay, California-based Zipline designs, manufactures, and operates drones to deliver vital medical products to everyone, no matter where they live.

To date, Zipline has flown 18,083,320 miles, made 254,233 commercial deliveries, delivered 1,891,400 bottles of medicine, and served over 25 million customers. Zipline has built the world’s fastest and most reliable delivery drone, the world’s largest autonomous logistics network.