The Wing is a technology company.
The Wing has raised $118.0M across 4 funding rounds.
Key people at The Wing.
The Wing was founded in 2015 by Audrey Gelman (Co-Founder & CEO).
The Wing has raised $118.0M in total across 4 funding rounds.
# Wing: Alphabet's Autonomous Delivery Pioneer
Wing is an Alphabet-owned drone delivery company that operates a fleet of lightweight, highly automated aircraft to transport small packages directly from businesses to homes and between healthcare providers[1]. The company delivers groceries, food, medicine, library books, and other essentials in as little as 30 minutes, with its fastest recorded delivery taking just 2 minutes and 47 seconds[2].
Wing serves residential customers across three continents, having completed over 600,000 commercial deliveries[2]. The company solves a fundamental logistics problem: reducing delivery time for time-sensitive goods while offering an environmentally friendly alternative to ground-based delivery networks. Its growth momentum is evident in its expansion to multiple major U.S. cities and recent partnerships, including a December 2025 launch with Walmart in Metro Atlanta[2].
Wing emerged from Google X (Alphabet's innovation lab) in 2012, when the team initially explored using drone delivery to transport emergency medical devices like defibrillators to people experiencing heart attacks[1]. The founders quickly realized that integrating with emergency medical services presented enormous regulatory and operational challenges, so they pivoted to focus on small-package delivery across everyday use cases where speed provided clear value[1].
Over the following years, the team investigated vehicle designs, built prototypes, and conducted extensive test flights to develop safe navigation systems capable of operating in congested modern environments[1]. This foundational work paid off: Wing graduated from X to become an independent Alphabet business in July 2018[1], marking the transition from experimental moonshot to commercial operation.
Wing operates at the intersection of three powerful trends: the rise of autonomous systems, the acceleration of last-mile delivery competition, and growing demand for faster, more sustainable logistics. The company is riding the wave of regulatory maturation around unmanned aircraft systems, which have gradually shifted from experimental to commercially viable over the past decade.
The timing is particularly favorable as e-commerce saturation and consumer expectations for speed have made traditional ground delivery increasingly expensive and inefficient. Wing's drone-based model addresses this by bypassing congested roads entirely, offering both speed and environmental benefits. By proving that autonomous delivery can scale commercially, Wing influences the broader ecosystem by validating drone logistics as a viable category and attracting investment and talent to the space.
Wing has successfully transitioned from moonshot experiment to operational business, but the company faces an expanding competitive landscape as Amazon, UPS, and other logistics players invest heavily in drone delivery. Its Alphabet ownership provides resources to compete, but regulatory approval, airspace management, and customer acquisition will remain critical challenges.
The next phase of Wing's evolution will likely involve geographic expansion beyond current markets, deepening partnerships with major retailers (as evidenced by the Walmart collaboration), and potentially expanding use cases into emergency services and industrial logistics. As autonomous systems mature and regulatory frameworks solidify, Wing's early operational experience and technology foundation position it as a significant player in reshaping how goods move through cities—though the ultimate winner in drone delivery remains uncertain.
Key people at The Wing.
The Wing was founded in 2015 by Audrey Gelman (Co-Founder & CEO).
The Wing has raised $118.0M in total across 4 funding rounds.
The Wing's investors include Afore Capital, Amplo, Bonfire Ventures, Founder Collective, Monarch Collective, NextView Ventures, Operator Collective, Sequoia Capital, Union Square Ventures, Michael Stoppelman, BoxGroup, Curie.Bio.
The Wing has raised $118.0M across 4 funding rounds. Most recently, it raised $75.0M Series C in December 2018.
| Date | Round | Lead Investors | Other Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 1, 2018 | $75.0M Series C | Afore Capital, Amplo, Bonfire Ventures, Founder Collective, Monarch Collective, NextView Ventures, Operator Collective, Sequoia Capital, Union Square Ventures, Michael Stoppelman | |
| Nov 1, 2017 | $32.0M Series B | Amplo | |
| Apr 1, 2017 | $8.0M Series A | Amplo, BoxGroup, Curie.Bio, Dopamine Ventures, First Round Capital, Founder Collective, Operator Partners, Mark Gerson | |
| Sep 1, 2015 | $3.0M Seed | Serena Ventures |
