Manna

Manna, a drone delivery company founded by serial entrepreneur Bobby Healy, is headquartered at NexusUCD and was formerly based at NovaUCD.

The company designs, builds and operates unmanned aerial vehicles, which perform high-speed deliveries of up to 3.5 kgs (~8lbs) in high-density suburban last-mile settings. The company, which currently employs 100 people, has to date secured over €40 million in funding from investors such as Molten Ventures, Tapestry VC, Dynamo Ventures, Atlantic Bridge, ffVC, Elkstone Ventures and most recently Coca-Cola HBC.

The company has concluded over 100,000 drone deliveries in multiple locations in Ireland including in Balbriggan, Co. Dublin, Oranmore, Co. Galway and Moneygall, Co. Offaly. A new drone delivery trial is planned for Blanchardstown, Co. Dublin, which aims to reach up to 1.5 million people. The company also plans to commence a US trial in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas and launch in 25 new locations in 2024, 15 of them in Ireland and in at least two other European countries. 

Bobby Healy received the 2019 NovaUCD Founder of the Year Award.

“It is a pleasure to receive this recognition from such an esteemed institution as UCD. Manna is indeed a highly innovative business, and a team-led business, so I graciously accept this recognition on behalf of the whole founding team in NovaUCD and in Wales.”

- Bobby Healy, CEO, Manna

Carrick Therapeutics

Carrick Therapeutics, an early-stage life-sciences enterprise is a spin-in at NovaUCD since 2016 with the aim of building Europe’s leading oncology company. They have an ambitious patient focused vision to serve cancer patients around the world with ground breaking cancer therapies that will transform the way cancer is treated

The company are pioneering a portfolio of unique, first in class, cancer treatments that target driver mechanisms of the most aggressive forms of cancer, and which will be tailored to an individual patient’s tumour.  Carrick Therapeutics, in an initial funding round raised €84.5 million from investors including Arch Venture Partners, one of the largest early-stage technology venture firms in the US, Woodford Investment Management, Cambridge Enterprise Seed Funds, Cambridge Innovation Capital, Evotec, Google Ventures and Lightstone Ventures.

In 2018 co-founder Dr Elaine Sullivan, co-founder won the EY Emerging Entrepreneur of The Year^TM (EOY) Award. Carrick Therapeutic’s network of world-class researchers, drug development experts and leading investors from the life sciences are passionate about effecting transformational change in cancer care for patients.