Zipline drones to reach where the streets have no name with Bono as director

September 13, 2019: Rock band U2 frontman and philantrophist Bono has become a director in Zipline, the largest drone delivery service in the world.

The delivery drone company transports life-saving medicines to Rwanda and Ghana.

For Bono, the plight of HIV patients he witnessed in Malawi, Africa 20 years ago, made him take the decision to support Zipline. "I was in Malawi, in Lilongwe, and I was watching people be diagnosed HIV positive and then being told that there was no treatment for that. The drugs that they needed existed, but they couldn't get them. I can still visualise the look in the eyes of those ­people in that queue as they were told that there was no treatment for their disease or they couldn't access these antiretroviral therapies."

He further added, "The strange thing about it was this unusual look — there was no anger, there was no rage, there was this strange sort of acquiescence. And I remember feeling ­nauseous. Then I remember my own anger. And I used it: I let that anger motivate me."

In 2016, Bono co-founded The Rise Fund that is "committed to achieving social and environmental impact alongside competitive financial returns". Through The Rise Fund Bono has invested in Zipline to further the company's expansion as it build drones and technology to reach remote locations with medicinal supplies.

"They're making distance disappear. And they put people at the centre of their commercial model, which I think is also something we think about a lot in The Rise Fund — that commerce should serve people and not the other way around," said Bono about his association with Zipline.

As a activist, Bono has established One, which works for advocacy of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals; and also co-founded Product Red in 2006, which partners with brands to raise funds to fight AIDS.

Zipline's technology is designed and tested in Half Moon Bay, California. They conduct extensive flight testing in Davis, California, and have teams of local operators all over the world. Zipline's other investors include Sequoia, A16Z, GV, Temasek, TPG, Baillie Gifford, and Katalyst Ventures.

In India, Andhra Pradesh is the first state in India to pilot the Advanced Drone Operators Toolkit – a user-manual for governments wanting to regulate safely the use of drones. Zipline contributed towards developing the Advanced Drone Operators Toolkit.