Case Study: Zipline achieves faster, more reliable life-saving drone deliveries with Databricks

Data-driven drones deliver lifesaving medical aid around the world

Zipline operates an autonomous logistics network that delivers blood, vaccines and critical medical supplies by drone to remote clinics in countries like Ghana and Rwanda. Their drones generate massive, time-series telemetry—about a gigabyte per flight—and Zipline struggled to ingest, federate, and analyze that data in real time across teams and supply-chain partners, even though roughly 30% of their deliveries are lifesaving emergencies.

By adopting Databricks as a centralized platform for ETL, data science and scaled IoT ML, Zipline can ingest thousands of flights’ worth of data in real time, democratize access to analyses, and quickly surface actionable insights. The result is faster diagnostics, better failure prediction and operational decisions (e.g., replace vs. retrieve), improved logistics efficiency and greater confidence to scale services — including pandemic-response deliveries — that directly save lives.

Zipline

Keller Rinaudo

Chief Executive Officer