Irish Drone Company Manna Plans For A Million Deliveries A Year

When I first started flying drones years ago the innovation of drone companies since then has been phenomenal for uses like search and rescue, mapping for enviromental groups and farming, and my main use which is making content for film and television. I'm sure everyone has seen those viral videos from Skycandy Studios of the drone flying thru the bowling alley or the entire Dallas Cowboys stadium.

Drone delivery may still seem futuristic in many places, but in parts of suburban Dublin, it’s already a part of daily life—thanks to Manna. The Irish startup has quietly emerged as a nimble challenger in the global drone race, recently securing $30 million to expand across Europe and beyond. While giants like Amazon and Zipline have spent hundreds of millions on their systems, Manna is keeping things lean and laser-focused on efficiency.

Founded by serial entrepreneur Bobby Healy—who famously got the idea after craving a bag of chips in his backyard—Manna has now completed over 200,000 deliveries since launching in 2020. Its drones operate autonomously and are loaded from parking lot bases, making up to eight deliveries per hour, thanks to a clever system that swaps both cargo and batteries with every flight. Their most popular item? Coffee.

Unlike its larger competitors, Manna says it turns a profit on every delivery, with current costs around $4 and a path to lowering them to just $1. That’s well below the $9–$11 average for car-based delivery over five miles, according to McKinsey. The key, says Healy, is simplicity—low-cost, reliable aircraft, minimal staff, and smart operations.

With 42% of households in its service areas already having used the platform, Manna plans to grow from three to 11 drone hubs around Dublin, aiming for an annual delivery rate of over 1.5 million. It's also ramping up in Finland and looking at wider European expansion, helped by new EU-wide drone regulations that make scaling viable. The U.S., by contrast, remains a longer-term goal due to slower FAA approvals.

Commercial partnerships are now central to Manna’s growth strategy. The company has inked deals with major delivery apps like Wolt and Just Eat, with more on the way. Being embedded into apps that already power billions of global deliveries could rocket Manna into the mainstream.

As Healy puts it: “It is an open goal now for us.”

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Source: Forbes

Photo Credit: Andrew Downes Business Post/Business Focus