Manna Aero, the Irish autonomous drone delivery company, is gearing up for a serious expansion into the United States. The startup announced plans for a U.S. operations and manufacturing facility in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that’s expected to employ around 1,000 people over the next several years.
Construction is already underway. CEO Bobby Healy expects manufacturing to begin in about a year. In the meantime, the company will scale its U.S. operations team to 200-300 people over the next 12 months.
Manna raised $50 million in venture capital back in April. That’s the fuel for this push. The company operates a hybrid model — it’s a delivery-as-a-service business that charges per flight, working through partnerships with DoorDash, Deliveroo, and Uber Eats in Europe, alongside direct business deals and its own app.
Manna’s drones don’t land. They lower packages on a tether — same technique used by Wing and Zipline. The company pulled back from its home market in Ireland last month, citing a lack of planning regulations that would let it scale there.
So it’s going all-in on the U.S. instead. Healy says the Trump administration’s and FAA’s policies have given drone delivery a “turbo boost.” He points to Amazon, Wing, and Zipline’s growth over the past year as evidence.
“A company like us, we wouldn’t have had any plans to grow in the United States until the environment was ready from a regulatory standpoint,” Healy said. “We’ve decided very clearly that now is the time for us to put every penny we have into the USA.”
The company is already operating in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and plans to keep scaling there. It’s also evaluating six other U.S. cities for expansion, with entry targets by end of 2027.
Former Ryanair CMO Kenny Jacobs has been brought on as executive chair and president to lead the charge.
