Media reports suggest that Tulsa, Oklahoma will be the focus of the company’s delivery and operations.
Irish air delivery service provider Manna is eyeing US expansion following its recent decision to suspend deliveries to Ireland due to a lack of regulatory and regulatory compliance, according to media reports.
Reuters reported that the Southwest US will be a major focus for the company, partnering in food delivery with companies such as DoorDash, McDonald’s and Uber Eats within the next two months.
Meanwhile, founder and CEO Bobby Healy told TechCrunch that Manna will establish a US operations and manufacturing center in Tulsa, Oklahoma that will employ about 1,000 people over the next few years.
“This part of the US – Oklahoma, Texas, the states here – will really be a battlefield and prove all kinds of drone delivery around the world,” Kenny Jacobs, the new chairman of Manna, told Reuters since the launch of the company’s first US operation.
“The technology has been proven. Now it’s about commercial growth and showing how quickly you can open the bases and deliver all kinds of things.”
He added that scaling quickly at a lower capital cost per base is possible, since each drone launch site is no bigger than four parking spaces, and he predicted that Manna will operate at 40 bases across Tulsa, Oklahoma’s second largest city, by mid-2027.
Healy told TechCrunch that production at the new plant, which is still under construction, will begin in about a year, giving Manna time to grow its workforce to between 200 and 300 people.
Regarding the US expansion, Healy said: “It’s the size of the market here, the consumer behavior and the fact that the aggregators have consolidated the market so well, and they’re very well run. The United States has a market that everybody wants.”
He said the company is exploring six more US cities for further expansion by the end of 2027, and added: “A company like us, we wouldn’t have plans to grow in the United States until the environment is legally ready to start growing, so we clearly decided that now is the time to put every penny we have in the USA.”
Last month, Manna said it would take a “significant break” from operations in Ireland over what it described as a lack of a clear national framework around drone technology, and would instead focus on the US, UK and other international markets where “regulatory and regulatory frameworks are improving and commercial drone delivery is accelerating”.
As of last month, the company has employed nearly 200 people across engineering, technology, operations and business operations in Dublin. It said future hiring and planned expansion at local delivery centers will not proceed at this time. Earlier this year, the company announced nearly 300 new jobs in Ireland, as well as a $50m Series B raise.
Manna already has operational approvals in the US and the UK, and is awaiting full operational approval in the United Arab Emirates.
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