Manna Accelerates US Expansion With Autonomous Drone Delivery Growth Plans

Manna Aero, the Ireland-based autonomous drone delivery company, has so far maintained a relatively modest presence in the United States. However, founder and CEO Bobby Healy says that the situation is about to change as the company prepares for a significant expansion across the American market.

Backed by the $50 million funding round it secured in April, Manna announced on Wednesday that it will establish a new U.S. operations and manufacturing centre in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The facility is expected to create approximately 1,000 jobs over the coming years. Construction of the manufacturing site is already underway, and Healy said production is expected to begin in roughly one year.

While work continues on the facility, Manna intends to expand its operational workforce rapidly. According to Healy, the company plans to grow its U.S. operations team to between 200 and 300 employees over the next 12 months. Hiring for the manufacturing plant will then increase in line with the company’s expansion into additional markets. He added that Manna is currently evaluating six other U.S. cities as potential future locations, with plans to begin entering those markets by the end of 2027 if development proceeds as expected.

The company’s long-term objective is to establish Manna as one of the leading drone delivery providers in the United States, competing directly with companies such as Zipline, Amazon, and Google’s Wing.

Explaining the decision to prioritise the U.S. market, Healy pointed to its size, consumer purchasing habits, and the maturity of food delivery platforms such as DoorDash and Uber Eats. He said the market has become highly organised through major delivery aggregators, making the United States the most attractive opportunity for companies operating in autonomous delivery.

Manna’s delivery system uses remotely monitored autonomous drones that do not land when making deliveries. Instead, each drone lowers packages to the ground using a tether, an approach also employed by companies including Wing and Zipline. The company operates using a hybrid business model centred on delivery-as-a-service, charging customers on a per-flight basis. In addition to partnerships with platforms including DoorDash, Deliveroo, and Uber Eats across Europe, Manna also works directly with businesses while offering its own consumer-facing application.

Although the company continues to maintain its headquarters in Ireland, where its research and development, administration, and manufacturing activities remain based, it no longer provides drone delivery services within the country. Last month, Manna ended its Irish delivery operations, explaining that existing planning regulations prevented the company from expanding its services at the scale required.

Instead, Manna has decided to direct its investment and operational resources toward the United States. To support that strategy, the company appointed former Ryanair Chief Marketing Officer Kenny Jacobs as Executive Chair and President to oversee the expansion.

Healy said recent policy changes introduced by the Trump administration together with regulatory developments at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have significantly accelerated opportunities for the drone delivery industry in the United States.

According to Healy, those regulatory improvements have encouraged greater investment throughout the sector. He explained that Manna had not previously planned large-scale expansion into the U.S. because the regulatory environment had not yet developed sufficiently. With those conditions now changing, he said the company has made a clear decision to invest all available resources into expanding across the American market.

Healy also pointed to the recent progress achieved by Amazon, Wing, and Zipline as evidence that the regulatory environment is becoming increasingly supportive of commercial drone delivery operations.

While acknowledging that Manna may have entered the market slightly later than some competitors, Healy expressed confidence that the company can rapidly close the gap through its expansion strategy.

Manna is not entirely new to the United States. The company launched operations in 2023 within the AllianceTexas Mobility Innovation Zone, a planned community near Dallas, Texas, developed by the real estate company Hillwood. According to Healy, Manna has since expanded its operations across the wider Dallas–Fort Worth region and plans to continue growing its presence there throughout the coming year.