Manna

Manna is valued at over $150 million following a $30 million funding round in March 2025 led by Molten Ventures and Tapestry VC. The round increased total funding to $60 million since the company's founding.

Key investors include Enterprise Ireland, Coca-Cola HBC, Dynamo VC, Radius Capital, and Stripe co-founder Patrick Collison.

Manna operates autonomous drone delivery services using custom-built eight-motor electric aircraft designed to deliver items in suburban neighborhoods. Customers place orders through partner apps such as Just Eat, DoorDash, Deliveroo, or Wolt, selecting items up to 4kg from restaurants, pharmacies, and local retailers.

The drones are deployed from shipping container-based hubs located in strip mall parking lots, with each hub occupying approximately five parking spaces. Orders are loaded into removable cargo bays that also function as swappable battery packs, allowing for 60-second turnarounds between flights. A single remote operator oversees up to 20 drones simultaneously as they navigate autonomously to GPS waypoints above customers' homes.

When delivering, drones hover at altitudes of 50-80 meters and lower packages on biodegradable tethers directly into customers' yards or driveways. The airborne journey typically takes less than three minutes within the 3-kilometer service radius, with total delivery times as short as three minutes from order placement to doorstep.

Manna operates a B2B2C model by partnering with major food delivery platforms to white-label its drone service, while also maintaining direct relationships with local merchants. Revenue is generated through consumer delivery fees and merchant commissions, creating a dual revenue stream similar to traditional delivery economics.

The business model focuses on operational efficiency driven by hardware innovation. Removable cargo bays, which double as swappable batteries, reduce charging downtime, and autonomous flight capabilities enable a single operator to manage multiple aircraft simultaneously. This setup supports up to 80 deliveries per drone per day, with labor accounting for approximately 50% of total costs.

Delivery costs currently average $4 per flight, with management aiming to reduce this to $1 at higher volumes through operational leverage. The company reports per-flight profitability at present, though it remains overall loss-making due to ongoing expansion investments. In contrast to asset-heavy competitors, Manna employs a lightweight infrastructure model designed for rapid deployment in suburban markets.

Amazon Prime Air is the most capitalized competitor but faces operational challenges, with delivery costs at approximately $63 per package compared to their sub-$5 target. The company has encountered safety issues and regulatory delays, currently operating in only two U.S. test markets.

In December 2025, Amazon launched “Amazon Now” ultrafast delivery in Seattle and Philadelphia, offering 30‑minute delivery for groceries and everyday essentials at $3.99 per order for Prime members and $13.99 for non‑members, with extra fees for orders under $15.

Alphabet's Wing has completed over 450,000 deliveries and established partnerships with Walmart in several U.S. metropolitan areas, though its focus remains primarily on the American market, where regulatory approval processes are complex.

Zipline has completed 1.6 million flights, initially focusing on medical logistics in Africa before expanding into food delivery through partnerships with Chipotle and Walmart. However, its heavier platform design reduces operational efficiency compared to Manna's lightweight approach.

These companies compete on metrics such as deliveries per hour and cost per flight. Manna's swappable battery system offers an advantage over integrated battery designs, which require longer recharge times.

Large food delivery platforms are pursuing multiple partnerships rather than developing proprietary drone capabilities.

Walmart employs a multi-vendor strategy, collaborating with both Wing and Zipline, while DoorDash, Just Eat, and Deliveroo integrate drone delivery through partnerships with operators like Manna.

This approach allows drone operators to scale by leveraging existing customer bases, while platforms aim to lower delivery costs and reduce reliance on drivers.

Manna is utilizing the EU's unified drone regulatory framework to scale across European markets more efficiently than competitors operating under the U.S.'s case-by-case approval system.

The company aims to expand its service area from 150,000 people in Dublin to over 1 million residents by the end of the year, followed by entry into the UK and other high-GDP European markets. Winter operations in Finland have demonstrated the technology's functionality in harsh weather conditions, creating opportunities in Nordic and Alpine regions where seasonal constraints limit ground logistics.

The company's existing infrastructure can accommodate higher-value delivery categories beyond food, such as cold-chain medical logistics, including prescription medicines, lab samples, and biologics.

These categories offer unit economics estimated to be 5-10 times higher than restaurant delivery while remaining within the current 4kg payload capacity. The tether system's bidirectional capability also supports rapid e-commerce returns, potentially establishing a recurring B2B revenue stream for retailers facing high reverse logistics costs.

Partnerships with major delivery platforms provide access to millions of European consumers while addressing platforms' driver cost and decarbonization challenges.

In addition to food aggregators, Manna is developing APIs and integrations to enable local businesses to offer three-minute delivery, broadening the addressable market to include neighborhood commerce such as pharmacies, bookshops, and tool stores.

Regulatory constraints: Although the EU offers a more unified regulatory framework compared to the U.S., drone delivery remains subject to restrictions in urban areas, flight paths, and safety requirements, which could constrain expansion into high-demand city centers. Changes in aviation regulations or safety incidents within the industry could result in additional operational restrictions or grounding mandates.

Unit economics pressure: While the company reports per-flight profitability, it faces challenges in aligning delivery fees with ground delivery pricing while maintaining competitiveness in speed and convenience. Labor costs, which account for 50% of expenses, limit opportunities for margin improvement. Additionally, the capital-intensive nature of drone fleets and charging infrastructure may necessitate ongoing investment, further straining unit economics at scale.

Weather dependency: Drone operations are inherently constrained by adverse weather conditions such as high winds, heavy rain, and snow, which could disrupt service reliability and hinder customer adoption. Unlike ground delivery, which operates in most weather scenarios, drones may face difficulties ensuring consistent availability, particularly for time-sensitive deliveries like medical supplies or meals during peak demand periods.