Zipline International is a real sleeper in the race to build an autonomous delivery service using drones that is both feasible and has a genuine business case. Amazon, Google, even Domino’s Pizza, have spent millions over the past few years testing flying AVs in the hope they will be cheaper package carriers than humans in ugly brown Bahamas or a kid in a car with lighted Domino’s sign on top. But they are still frustrated by safety concerns and simple economics.

Meanwhile, an SF AV delivery startup called Zipline has just raised an additional $190 million in venture funding — brings its total capital raised to $225 million — and achieved a $1.2 billion valuation from its investors.

How did they do it? Founders Keller Rinaudo, William Hetzler and Keenan Wyrobek had some success some years back as the makers of Romo, an iPhone-powered robotic pet, but the young entrepreneurs quickly decided they wanted to do something with a bit more social impact.

They discovered that many people around the world die each year from lack of access to life-saving and critical medical products because of what is known as the last-mile problem: the inability to deliver critical medicine from a city to rural or remote locations due to lack of adequate transportation, communication or supply chain infrastructure.

They began scouring the developing world to learn where and how drone-based logistics could help save lives.

“We discovered that millions of people across the world die each year because they can’t get the medicine they need when they need it,” CEO Rinaudo said. “It’s a problem in both developed and developing countries. But it’s a problem we can help solve with on-demand drone delivery.”

Armed with an $800,000 grant from UPS and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the company studied the feasibility of the concept which works by enabling healthcare workers in remote areas to order supplies by text message or telephone and have them delivered by drones dispatched from central distribution centers — usually in a half hour or less.

In October of 2016, Zipline and the Government of Rwanda launched the world’s first national drone delivery service to make on-demand emergency blood deliveries to transfusion clinics across the country.

In the three years since Zipline launched in Rwanda, its drones have made more than 14,000 deliveries and supplies more than half of the country’s blood supply.

Zipline drones can carry four pounds of cargo at a maximum speed of around 70 mph, with an all-weather range of 100 miles. Every distribution center can provide medicines for 7,700 square miles. Zipline’s drones take off and land at the distribution center only, requiring no additional infrastructure at the clinics it serves. Deliveries are made from the sky, with the drone descending close to the ground and air dropping the medicine to a designated spot near the health centers.

Earlier this year, Zipline add Ghana to its customer list. The company has begun operating 30 drones out of four distribution centers in Ghana to distribute vaccines, blood and lifesaving medications to 2,000 health facilities across that West African nation daily.

Zipline said it will use the new funds to expand its medical supply delivery services across Africa, the Americas, South Asia, and Southeast Asia and — beginning this year — to the U.S. starting in North Carolina.. The company said it aims to serve 700 million people with its drones within the next five years.

“There is a growing feeling around the world that technology is not benefitting the vast majority of people, said CEO Keller Rinaudo in a statement. “The old conventional wisdom has been that building a successful technology company requires exploiting people’s personal information or hijacking their attention. Zipline wants to establish a new model for success in Silicon Valley by showing the world that the right technology company with the right mission and the best team can help improve the lives of every person on the planet.”

Zipline has a lot of smart money behind it, including Sequoia Capital, Google Ventures, SV Angel, Subtraction Capital, Jerry Yang, Paul Allen, and Stanford University.

And, how can you not love a company whose mission statement is: “…is to build instant delivery for the planet, allowing medicines and other products to be delivered on-demand and at low cost without using a drop of gasoline.”