Drone delivery startup Manna is planning a major expansion into the United States

Manna Aero, an Ireland-based drone delivery startup, was a smaller player in the United States. That’s about to change, founder and CEO Bobby Healey told TechCrunch.

Start-up, fueled 50 million dollars In venture capital it raised in April, the company said it was creating a U.S. operations and manufacturing center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that will employ about 1,000 people over the next few years. Construction is underway at the plant and Healey 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 Healey. The pace of hiring at the plant will depend on the growth rate outside of Tulsa, he said, noting that the company is evaluating six other U.S. cities. If all goes well, aphids will start entering these cities by the end of 2027.

The ultimate goal is to spin Mana Aero to a major drone delivery player in the US competing with Zipline, Amazon, Google’s Wing and others.

“It’s just about the size of the market here, consumer behavior, and the fact that the aggregators (DoorDash, Uber Eats) have consolidated the market well, and are very well managed,” Healey said, explaining the US expansion. “The United States has the market that everyone wants.”

Manna operates automated drones that are monitored remotely and do not land. Instead, they lower the package onto a rope, the same technique used by Wing and Zipline. Manna has a hybrid business model. It’s basically a delivery-as-a-service company that charges a fee per ride. But it has different ways to achieve this, 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 remains headquartered in Ireland, where its R&D, administrative and manufacturing operations are based. But it no longer operates drone delivery services in the country; Manna withdrew its drone deliveries last month, citing A Lack of planning regulations That would allow it to expand there.

Instead, the startup places its capital and resources in the United States. The company has appointed former Ryanair marketing director Kenny Jacobs as chief executive and president to drive the expansion.

Healey said the Trump administration and FAA policies have given the industry a “huge boost” in the country.

“It flows into raw investment,” he said. “A company like us, we didn’t have any plans to grow in the US until the environment was regulatory ready to start growing, so we decided very clearly that now was the right time for us to put every penny we had into the USA.”

Healey pointed to growth at Amazon, Wing and Zipline over the past year as evidence of those policies.

“We may be a little behind the curve, but we will catch up quickly,” he added.

Mana is not entirely new to the United States. The startup began operating in 2023 in the AllianceTexas Mobility Innovation Zone, part of a planned community near Dallas, Texas, developed by real estate developer Hillwood. Mana has expanded into the greater Dallas-Fort Worth area and plans to continue expanding there over the next year, Healey said.