Would you use a drone food delivery service?
That’s the question Irish online newspaper The Journal posed to readers earlier this week, following controversy around drone startup Manna’s plans to ramp up operations around Dublin.
Manna already makes up to 300 deliveries across the city, with the app downloaded more than 30k times in Ireland in 2024 — a sixfold increase from the previous year — according to data from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower.
But CEO Bobby Healy wants to go even further, promising to transform Dublin into “by far the biggest” drone delivery site in the world this year. Of the 12k readers surveyed by The Journal, a small majority (48%) said they would use a drone delivery service, while a handful less (43%) said they would not.
Droning on
What feels futuristic to most has achieved a level of normalcy in Dublin’s Blanchardstown suburb, where Manna makes the bulk of its flights.
After a customer orders food, coffee, books or over-the-counter medicines through the Manna app, a drone collects the goods from the selected location and delivers it within three minutes, flying at an altitude of up to 70 metres. Last week, the company announced a collaboration with food delivery platform Just Eat to expand the items it delivers. It’s aiming to have 10 bases serving 1m customers by the end of this year.
CEO Healy has faced scrutiny from some Irish lawmakers, with Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman branding the industry as “wild west territory”, warning of “real dangers of a crash between drones” if companies like Manna weren’t brought to heel.
Despite this recent pressure, Healy is one of the few European founders you’ll hear championing the EU’s regulatory regime. A popular refrain among homegrown tech leaders claims EU regulation is making Europe a hard place to do business compared with other big markets. There have been some attempts to simplify and rein in some regulations before the region loses even more ground to the US and China.
But in the case of drones, “They can’t exist without rules, they’re an essential enabler. We have a competitive advantage on everyone else because we’re focusing on Europe first,” Healy says.
Well-funded American rivals include DroneUp, Alphabet’s Wing and Amazon Prime Air. But the US has tighter restrictions on drones, so even a dominant shopping platform like Amazon has only flown a few thousand flights to date. By comparison, Manna says it’s completed over 165k flights since it started in 2018.
In January, Manna began trialing its little flyers with delivery company Wolt in Finland. The snow in Espoo wasn’t a problem, Healy insists. “Wind is the hard thing, making Ireland the toughest ‘proving ground’ there is.”
Healy argues drones make more economical sense than road deliveries. “It’s about zero marginal cost at scale. There are high upfront costs [for drones], but near-free deliveries after that,” Healy says. “That poor guy on the bike is not exactly living off foie gras and champagne either. He has to race against time to make it financially viable.”
Some Dublin residents have voiced concerns over Manna’s expansion plans. After the company submitted a planning application for its proposed move into southwest Dublin, one resident told the Irish Times: “The sound in my garden is louder than if a car was actually passing through the garden itself.”
But Healy says complaints have been minimal, amounting to ”roughly one a month” compared to the thousands of deliveries undertaken, and says Manna is improving its technology to reduce noise.
Military drones?
But how would Healy feel about his drones carrying missiles instead of pizza? The Manna chief is a firm supporter of Ukraine and regularly posts the country’s flag on social media site X.
Drones have fast become the most lethal weaponry in the country’s war with Russia — so would Manna ever consider a pivot into defence? “It’s hard enough to build what we’re building, we don’t have the resources. Manna is an eight-day-a-week job,” says Healy.
But he nonetheless believes “Europe needs an Anduril,” referring to the US startup that raised $1.5bn last year to accelerate the production of autonomous weapons. “The really hard problem is manufacturing drones at scale. China has that capability, Russia has it, all the bad actors have it and Europe needs to get it.”
Healy says, “If I was starting something again, it would be to enable Europe to grow up and have a proper defence system. I’d love to be part of that.”
Tooting Teslas
Long before Manna, Healy spent years making video games in California. “Proud to have written some of the best and worst games the home computer industry saw in the 80s,” his LinkedIn profile reads. One of these titles is MIchael Jackson’s Moonwalker for the PC (“Lacklustre”, reads one review on Youtube ).
Another title Healy worked on was an adaptation of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s film The Running Man. Healy recalls a studio head arriving with an advance copy, which he and colleagues had to watch while taking notes, and then quickly crank out a game. “It was really hard work.” His favourite game these days is online chess, which he plays 10-15 times a day.
His other indulgence: Teslas.
Healy has owned three of these cars but faces “a dilemma” about buying a fourth. “I love Elon Musk’s products, but not his politics.
“But what Tesla has understood better than anyone is that it’s selling entertainment. When you lock the car it makes a fart noise — my 11-year-old still laughs at that. What German car company would ever make their car fart?”
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/manna-drones-dublin-food-delivery/
