Autonomous drone delivery startup Manna plots major US expansion

自主无人机配送初创公司 Manna 计划大规模进军美国市场

Manna Aero, the Ireland-based autonomous drone delivery startup, has been a smaller player in the United States. Founder and CEO Bobby Healy told TechCrunch that’s about to change. The startup, fueled by the $50 million in venture capital it raised in April, said Wednesday that it’s setting up a U.S. operations and manufacturing center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that will employ about 1,000 people over the next several years. 总部位于爱尔兰的自主无人机配送初创公司 Manna Aero 此前在美国市场一直扮演着较小的角色。创始人兼首席执行官 Bobby Healy 向 TechCrunch 表示，这种情况即将改变。得益于四月份筹集的 5000 万美元风险投资，该公司周三宣布，将在俄克拉荷马州塔尔萨市建立一个美国运营和制造中心，预计在未来几年内将雇佣约 1000 名员工。

Construction on the factory is underway and Healy expects manufacturing to begin there in about a year. As construction continues, the company will focus on scaling its operations team to about 200 to 300 people over the next 12 months, according to Healy. The pace of hiring at the factory will depend on the rate of growth outside of Tulsa, he said, noting that the company is assessing six other U.S. cities. If all goes well, Manna will start entering those cities by the end of 2027. 工厂建设工作正在进行中，Healy 预计约一年后即可开始生产。据 Healy 介绍，在施工期间，公司将专注于在未来 12 个月内将运营团队扩大到 200 至 300 人。他表示，工厂的招聘进度将取决于塔尔萨以外地区的增长速度，并指出公司目前正在评估其他六个美国城市。如果一切顺利，Manna 将在 2027 年底前开始进入这些城市。

The end goal is to turn Manna Aero into a major U.S. drone delivery operator that competes with Zipline, Amazon, and Google’s Wing, among others. “It’s just the size of the market here, consumer behavior, and the fact that the aggregators (DoorDash, Uber Eats) have consolidated the market so well, and they’re so well run,” Healy said, explaining the U.S. expansion. “The United States has the market that everybody wants.” 最终目标是将 Manna Aero 打造成美国主要的无人机配送运营商，与 Zipline、亚马逊和谷歌旗下的 Wing 等公司展开竞争。在谈到进军美国市场的原因时，Healy 表示：“这里市场的规模、消费者的行为，以及聚合平台（如 DoorDash、Uber Eats）已经很好地整合了市场且运营得非常出色，这些都是关键因素。美国拥有每个人都梦寐以求的市场。”

Manna operates automated, remotely monitored drones that don’t land. Instead, they lower the package on a tether, the same technique used by Wing and Zipline. Manna has a hybrid business model. It is fundamentally a delivery-as-a-service company that charges per flight. But it has different ways of achieving that, including through partnerships with DoorDash, Deliveroo, and Uber Eats in Europe as well as direct partnerships with businesses and its own consumer-facing app. Manna 运营着自动化的远程监控无人机，这些无人机在配送时无需着陆，而是通过系绳将包裹放下，这与 Wing 和 Zipline 使用的技术相同。Manna 采用混合商业模式，本质上是一家按飞行次数收费的“配送即服务”（delivery-as-a-service）公司。但它有多种实现方式，包括与欧洲的 DoorDash、Deliveroo 和 Uber Eats 建立合作，以及与企业直接合作，并拥有自己的消费者端应用程序。

Manna is still headquartered in Ireland, where its R&D, administrative, and manufacturing operations are based. But it no longer operates drone delivery in the country; Manna pulled back its drone delivery operations last month citing a lack of planning regulations that would allow it to scale there. Instead, the startup is putting its capital and resources into the United States. Manna 目前仍将总部设在爱尔兰，其研发、行政和制造业务也位于当地。但该公司已不再在爱尔兰开展无人机配送业务；Manna 上个月撤回了当地的配送运营，理由是缺乏允许其扩大规模的规划法规。相反，这家初创公司正将资本和资源投入到美国市场。

The company hired former Ryanair CMO Kenny Jacobs as its executive chair and president to drive the expansion. Healy said the Trump administration’s and the FAA’s policies have given the industry a “turbo boost” in the country. “It’s trickling down into raw investment,” he said. “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 to start growth, and so we’ve decided very clearly that now is the time for us to put every penny we have into the USA.” 该公司聘请了前瑞安航空（Ryanair）首席营销官 Kenny Jacobs 担任执行主席兼总裁，以推动此次扩张。Healy 表示，特朗普政府和美国联邦航空管理局（FAA）的政策为该行业在美国的发展提供了“涡轮增压”。他说：“这正在转化为实际的投资。像我们这样的公司，如果监管环境还没准备好支持增长，我们原本不会有在美国扩张的计划。因此，我们非常明确地决定，现在是将我们每一分钱都投入到美国的时候了。”

Healy pointed to the growth at Amazon, Wing, and Zipline over the past year as evidence of those policies. “We’re probably slightly behind the curve, but we’ll catch up quickly,” he said. Healy 指出，亚马逊、Wing 和 Zipline 在过去一年的增长就是这些政策的有力证明。他说：“我们可能稍微落后了一点，但我们会很快赶上。”

Manna isn’t entirely new to the United States. The startup began operating in 2023 in the AllianceTexas Mobility Innovation Zone, which is part of a planned community near Dallas, Texas, developed by the real estate development company Hillwood. Healy said Manna has expanded into the greater Dallas-Fort Worth area and plans to continue to scale there over the next year. Manna 对美国市场并不完全陌生。该公司于 2023 年开始在德克萨斯州达拉斯附近的 AllianceTexas 移动创新区运营，该区域是由房地产开发商 Hillwood 开发的规划社区的一部分。Healy 表示，Manna 已经扩展到大达拉斯-沃斯堡地区，并计划在未来一年内继续在那里扩大规模。