Manna has closed a $50 million Series B, bringing total funding to $110 million, as the Dublin-based drone delivery company prepares to expand from live operations in Ireland and Texas to 40 bases across the United States and Europe.
ARK Invest led the round alongside Schooner Capital and the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund. Existing backers Coca-Cola HBC, Molten Ventures, and Enterprise Ireland also participated.
What Manna Has Actually Built
The company’s pitch is grounded in operational history rather than projected metrics. Since launching in 2019, Manna has completed more than 250,000 regulated commercial flights across Ireland, Finland, and Texas. In active coverage areas, orders arrive in under three minutes. CEO Bobby Healy claims this output significantly exceeds Amazon’s 70,000 drone deliveries to date.
The unit economics matter as much as the flight count. Manna says it is the only air delivery company globally to demonstrate positive unit economics for residential last-mile delivery — meaning individual deliveries are profitable, not subsidised by venture capital hoping scale eventually fixes the math.
In Dublin West, where the service has operated longest, 60% of households now order by air regularly. That’s not a trial metric. That’s adoption.
The US Expansion Plan
The $50 million funds 40 new operational bases across the US and Europe, with Manna targeting two million deliveries by end of 2026. The company is already operating in Texas and has reported discussions in Oklahoma.
Manna’s regulatory approach is central to the expansion strategy. The company holds a Gold Standard Light UAS Operator Certificate under EASA, and FAA administrator Bryan Bedford visited Manna’s Dublin headquarters earlier this year to observe how it manages high-frequency operations across multiple locations simultaneously. That kind of access doesn’t happen without a credible safety record.
“Regulation isn’t a constraint, it’s an enabler,” Healy said. “Europe allowed us to build and refine the system — the US is now opening up as the market where that system can scale rapidly.”
Customers order through Uber, Deliveroo, Just Eat, or DoorDash — whichever platform they already use. The drone handles the last mile.
Why This Round Is Different
Most drone delivery companies are raising on promise. Manna is raising on a quarter of a million completed flights, demonstrated unit economics, and a regulatory relationship with the FAA that took years to build.
The investor list is telling. ARK Invest’s portfolio includes OpenAI, Tesla, and SpaceX — companies that reshaped their industries by executing on infrastructure others dismissed as premature. Schooner Capital focuses specifically on autonomous technology that works outside a lab.
The question for Manna is whether the Dublin playbook transfers to the US at speed. Forty bases is an ambitious target. The unit economics work in suburban Ireland — whether they hold across varied US geographies, regulatory environments, and retail partnerships is what 2026 will answer.
Two million deliveries by year end. That’s the number to watch.
