Finland\u2019s weather is notoriously unfriendly; but even so, your food order might be delivered by a drone.<\/p>\n
On a rainy day after Helsinki\u2019s annual Slush conference<\/a>, Finnish entrepreneur Ville Lepp\u00e4l\u00e4 took TechCrunch behind the scenes of a three-party partnership between Irish drone delivery company Manna<\/a>, DoorDash-owned food delivery platform Wolt<\/a>, and his own startup, Huuva<\/a>.<\/p>\n Huuva, whose name means kitchen hood, raised a seed round led by General Catalyst in 2022 with the promise of bringing good food to the suburbs. While it branched out of its cloud kitchen origins<\/a>, its business still relies heavily on delivery tech \u2014 now including drones.<\/p>\n \u201cIf available, we\u2019ll send your order with a drone.\u201d That\u2019s how Wolt has been notifying customers ordering from Huuva\u2019s Niittari location in Espoo, which is part of the Helsinki metropolitan area, but which Lepp\u00e4l\u00e4 sees as particularly well suited for this concept.<\/p>\n While European suburbs aren\u2019t as sprawling as those in the United States, people who work, study, and live in places like Espoo still lack the variety of options they can find in the capital. Huuva lets them order popular items from partner restaurant brands \u2014 and drones help those orders arrive faster, Lepp\u00e4l\u00e4 said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Building upon Manna\u2019s track record of completing more than 50,000 deliveries<\/a> in Dublin, operations in Finland started quickly once the appropriate permits were secured. After a pilot phase from February, the drones have been fully operational for the last two months in Espoo, where they depart from a launchpad that\u2019s shared with delivery-only grocery store Wolt Market.<\/p>\n For the end users, this means that they can order different food styles from Huuva\u2019s partner brands, and add some groceries, too \u2014 each drone can carry around 4.4 lb, and Manna can send two of them at once.\u00a0<\/p>\n This adds another layer of convenience, but also speed. Unlike drivers, drones won\u2019t get stuck in traffic at lunch time. According to Lepp\u00e4l\u00e4, this is key to making sure the food arrives fresh; and it doesn\u2019t hurt if unit economics are more sustainable for Huuva, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n Techcrunch event<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco<\/span> Huuva\u2019s team estimates that regular deliveries currently cost \u20ac5-6 each (approximately $6-8), while drone deliveries could get down to \u20ac1 ($1.16). That\u2019s not accounting for the extra costs that Manna may be incurring from setting up its Finnish operations, although the weather wasn\u2019t as challenging as it might have been for a newcomer.<\/p>\n Coming from Ireland, Manna\u2019s drones were already thoroughly tested for wind and rain, in such quantities that snow also falls under the same umbrella. Icing does present an extra challenge, but according to local operations and maintenance lead Makar Nalimov, in those cases they\u2019ll just use other delivery methods, especially since using chemicals for de-icing is also out of the question when food is involved.<\/p>\n These fallback options highlight that Manna\u2019s drones are part of a fast-expanding range of last-mile delivery solutions. Wolt itself is already using sidewalk robots from Coco<\/a> and Starship<\/a> in Finland, and its parent company DoorDash even built its own, Dot<\/a>, which started performing deliveries in Arizona earlier this year.<\/p>\n Amid rumors that DoorDash may be building its own drone delivery program<\/a>, in addition to collaborating with Alphabet-owned Wing<\/a>, direct partnerships could be beneficial to companies like Manna and Huuva. The food startup is considering an expansion to another Espoo location where Wolt Market would be out of the equation, which would make it possible for the launchpad to be close enough to the kitchen for deliveries to be handed over through a window.<\/p>\n In the current process, Manna\u2019s launchpad sits within a short distance; delivery workers on e-scooters pick up the orders from the kitchen in a heat bag, then carry it over to Manna\u2019s operators. Under maintenance lead Nalimov\u2019s supervision, they put the orders on a scale and balance the weight if needed before placing them into special bags approved by regulators.<\/p>\n Resistant bags are only one of many safety measures that Manna follows to comply with regulations and its own procedures. For instance, batteries are systematically swapped so that drones always fly with a full charge. According to Nalimov, there\u2019s also redundancy at all levels, plus preparedness for different incident scenarios \u2014 and a parachute as a last resort.<\/p>\n Although Manna has staff on the ground, Mission Control sits in Ireland. There, operators assess the LiDAR maps, review the planned flight itinerary and drop a pin for the drone to deliver within a short radius of the customer\u2019s location. If conditions aren\u2019t met, the order falls back to a courier. If approved, the drone captures an image of the landing spot for final human confirmation before lowering the package with biodegradable rope.\u00a0<\/p>\n This process has now become routine for Manna\u2019s local staff, which is getting busier. According to Nalimov, he and his team are now handling double-digit deliveries a day, and are confidently gearing up for their first operational winter in Finland. As for Huuva, it is now ready to double down on drone deliveries in Espoo, with one extra wish: being allowed to put its logo on those regulator-sanctioned bags.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Huuva-Manna-and-Wolt-partnership-Espoo-Finland-November-2025-15-rotated.jpg?w=510\")
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 13-15, 2026<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"Huuva-Manna-and-Wolt-partnership-Espoo-Finland-November-2025\"](\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/gif-Huuva-Manna-and-Wolt-partnership-Espoo-Finland-November-2025-e1764517902262.gif?w=462\")
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