DUBLIN, July 8 (Reuters) – Ninety percent of Tulsans will be able to order deliveries by autonomous drone within the next year, operator Manna said on Wednesday after beginning a push into the American southwest it believes will be the “battleground” for the fast-growing sector.
The Irish-founded and headquartered startup will start flying orders from partners such as DoorDash, McDonald’s and Uber Eats within the next two months and operate from 40 bases across Oklahoma’s second most populous city by mid-2027, executive chairman Kenny Jacobs told Reuters.
“This part of the U.S., Oklahoma, Texas, states around here will really be the battleground for scaling up and proving all types of drone delivery globally,” Jacobs told Reuters from the launch of the company’s first full-scale U.S. operation.
“The technology is proven. Now it’s about the commercial scalability and showing how quickly you can open up bases and deliver all types of things,” added the former Dublin Airport CEO and Ryanair marketing chief who joined Manna this week.
Manna, which is seeking to compete with Zipline, Alphabet’s Wing, Amazon’s Prime Air and other startups in the U.S, has completed more than 300,000 deliveries, mainly in its home market of Ireland where it recently paused services, citing the absence of clear national planning regulations.
Jacobs anticipates no such hurdles in the U.S. and said he would be amazed if Manna does not expand into another U.S. city this year, citing other parts of Oklahoma, nearby Texas and Arizona as attractive destinations.
The company can scale quickly at a low capital expenditure cost per base given each local launch site is no bigger than the size of four car parking spaces, Jacobs said.
Manna, which raised $50 million in Series B funding earlier this year, hopes to expand into Britain by early 2028 with its plans to begin pushing into the Middle East in the United Arab Emirates potentially progressing before that, Jacobs added.
(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama )
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