We had someone order a head of broccoli to be delivered by drone
“We had someone order a head of broccoli. Who orders a head of broccoli for drone delivery?” Well, apparently people do and Manna Aero in Ireland was happy to make the delivery happen.
Broccoli delivered by drone in less than five minutes
“We had someone order a head of broccoli. Who orders a head of broccoli for drone delivery? The broccoli cost 79 cents — and then they paid €5 for the delivery,” says Bobby Healy, founder, and chief executive of Manna Aero.
Once the drone arrives at the customer's location, the items are lowered by rope so that the order can be received by a person on the ground. The Manna Aero drone has a maximum payload capacity of around 4.5 pounds.
Manna Aero is a startup in Ireland that is developing drone delivery as a service. The unmanned aircraft are flown from the rooftop of a Tesco Grocery store to make deliveries to nearby customers. The company aims to roll out the drone delivery service across Ireland and to the EU region in the coming years.
Manna Aero charges a subscription fee to the retailer, who in turn pass the cost on in the form of a 5 EUR delivery charge to be paid by the customers.
Manna Aero has been able to raise money from John and Patrick Collison, the two brothers behind Stripe the electronic payments company. An additional investment round is planned for later this year, reports Apex Insight.
Manna Aero says that a town of around 25,000 residents would be sufficiently large to accommodate a profitable drone delivery service. Currently, trials are taking place in the Irish town of Oranmore that has a population of only 8,000 people.
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