Bobby Healy Is Turning Tulsa Into Manna’s American Launchpad
The Irish founder is building Manna’s U.S. future around Tulsa, with plans for manufacturing, dozens of operating bases and potentially more than 1,000 jobs.
For Bobby Healy, Manna’s expansion into the United States is becoming much more than another international market launch. The Irish founder is increasingly building the company’s American future around Tulsa, Oklahoma — turning the city into a testing ground for how a European technology company can manufacture, operate and scale across the U.S.
Manna’s underlying ambitions are substantial. The drone-delivery company has outlined plans for a manufacturing and operations center in Tulsa, the potential creation of more than 1,000 jobs, roughly 40 local operating bases and expansion into additional U.S. cities.
From Ireland to Oklahoma
Healy founded Manna with the idea that small autonomous aircraft could handle the final few miles of local delivery faster and more efficiently than traditional road-based networks. The company built much of its early operating experience in Ireland before turning its attention toward the much larger American market.
That move puts Manna into one of the most closely watched areas of logistics technology. The U.S. offers enormous potential delivery volumes, dense suburban markets and a large base of retailers and restaurant operators, but it also presents a more complex operating environment and significant competition.
Rather than treating the United States purely as a sales market, Manna is putting physical infrastructure behind its expansion. Tulsa is expected to play a central role in that strategy.
Tulsa as the American scaling laboratory
The most interesting part of Manna’s U.S. strategy is the concentration of several functions in one American city. Manufacturing, operations, local delivery bases and workforce development can all reinforce each other as the company learns what it takes to run a drone-delivery network at U.S. scale.
For European companies entering America, that matters. U.S. expansion is often described as a national strategy from day one. In practice, companies frequently need one market where they can build the operating playbook first. Tulsa is increasingly serving that role for Manna.
If the model works, the company can take what it learns in Oklahoma — from manufacturing and regulatory operations to customer adoption and local logistics — and replicate it in additional cities.
The founder is moving closer to the market
Healy’s increasing personal focus on Oklahoma adds another dimension to the story. For founders scaling European businesses in America, proximity can become a strategic advantage. Building a U.S. operation requires relationships with employees, customers, regulators, investors and local partners that are difficult to manage entirely from Europe.
That makes Manna a founder story as much as a technology story. Healy is not simply exporting an Irish product into America. He is increasingly building an American operating organization around it.
A much bigger bet than a U.S. office
The scale of the Tulsa plan separates Manna from the typical European company entering the United States through a small commercial team. A potential workforce exceeding 1,000 people, combined with manufacturing and dozens of operating locations, would create a significant physical footprint.
It also represents a deeper commitment to the American market. Once manufacturing capacity, employees and operating infrastructure are built locally, the United States becomes part of the company’s core operating system rather than simply another export destination.
Why this matters for European founders
Manna illustrates a recurring pattern among ambitious European companies scaling in America: the most consequential move is often not entering the U.S., but deciding where to build the first repeatable American operation.
For Healy, that place is increasingly Tulsa. The next test is whether the operating model developed there can travel — first to more bases in Oklahoma and ultimately to a wider network of American cities.
If Manna succeeds, Tulsa may be remembered not simply as the company's first major U.S. market, but as the place where an Irish drone-delivery business learned how to become an American-scale company.
