Drone delivery is one sector where strong regulation is a plus, not a hindrance. This makes the EU a surprisingly fertile ground for a company like Manna and its backyard delivery service.
"Europe is miles ahead of the United States in this space," said its CEO, Irish entrepreneur Bobby Healy.
Without friendly regulation, Dublin-based Manna wouldn't be able to use its autonomous aircraft to deliver purchases from local stores directly into their customers' gardens, as it has now been doing in Ireland for three and a half years. After further proving its worth during the pandemic, it can now easily export its approach to other EU countries thanks to the U-space legal framework.
While Healy is all praise for European regulators, he'd much rather talk about another underrated fact: That Manna is "the only drone delivery company that has reached profitable economics." This is perhaps less of a priority for its American counterpart Wing, an Alphabet company since it graduated from Google X in 2018. But Healy wants Manna to already focus on what matters in the long term — including cost and scalability.
This also means underplaying the coolness factor of drones, or realizing that's not what it's all about. "Our consumers are bored with us already," Healy joked. Not that they stopped ordering, of course; Manna is on its way to reach between one and 2 million deliveries a year in between now and the next 12 months. But that's reality, not sci-fi.
Another proof of how mundane Manna has become is what people use it for. "The number one thing that we deliver is coffee," Healy said. More often than not, users will order several of these, and maybe also pastries alongside.
From a unit economics perspective — which makes Healy light up — this is great news for the company. "It's an excellent product, not just because of the basket and the margin, but because of the frequency of purchase and adoption rate of it."
For local merchants, especially coffee shops and restaurants, this creates a new delivery avenue that is at no risk from road congestion, or worse, accidents; but neither more costly nor slower than alternatives. That also aligns with Manna's mission to make "lightning-fast suburban deliveries affordable, green and safe."
Bigger players are taking notice, too. In March of last year, bottling giant Coca-Cola HBC announced a strategic investment into the startup alongside a broader partnership that "encapsulates [its] ambition to deliver our products in new and more sustainable ways."
This alignment with corporate priorities could create more tailwinds for Manna. But change won't happen overnight; Healy estimates that it will take five to 10 years for its drones to take over a significant market share from road-based delivery.
With new competitors emerging, such as Aviant, it won't all be fair weather for the Irish company in the next decade — but having learned to fly in Dublin's windy suburbs, it is literally used to it. Its next stop will be in the vicinity of Finland's capital, Helsinki, thanks to a major partnership it will announce soon.
