• Manna Drone Delivery (Manna), an Irish drone delivery company, has announced plans to expand operations to the US later this year and extend its reach in Europe further in the following year.

• The company is also planning to establish a new manufacturing facility and a drone-based delivery location in a Dublin suburb in Ireland, which has a potential market of 100,000 people. The company will also increase its team by about 50% to support the expansion plans.

• Manna also revealed that it has completed around 100,000 test flights to date serving around 45,000 eligible customers in Oranmore, MoneygallIrel, and Balbriggan in Ireland.

<ul><li> Analyst QuickTake: Manna raised EUR 20.7 million (USD 25 million) in Series A funding in April last year, partially for this purpose. In May 2021, Manna also received the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA)’s “Light UAS Operator Certificate” (LUC), available under EU drone regulations and recognized across the EU. With the certification, Manna can self-authorize operations in the EU without the need for further approvals. We believe these developments will also help the company to scale its operations. However, it would still need to gain necessary approvals from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to start operations in the US.</ul>