Startups & Funding
Manus raises over $500M in first round since Meta deal collapsed
Manus parent Butterfly Effect raised more than $500 million in its first funding round since Chinese authorities forced it to unwind a $2 billion Meta acquisition deal.
Butterfly Effect, the parent company of Chinese AI lab Manus, said Thursday in a WeChat post that it has raised more than $500 million — its first funding round since Meta was forced to call off its $2 billion acquisition of the startup. Boyu Capital and IDG Capital led the round, with existing shareholders Tencent, HSG (formerly Sequoia China), ZhenFund, and others also participating. The company said it will keep hiring both in China and abroad.
Manus did not disclose its valuation, though last month it was said to be in talks with investors to raise $500 million at a $4 billion valuation. The startup did not respond to TechCrunch’s questions about its valuation.
Manus went viral last year after a demo of its AI agent and relocated its staff to Singapore in mid-2025, before announcing a $2 billion acquisition deal with Meta that December. At the time, the startup was said to be pulling in annual recurring revenue of over $100 million. In April, Chinese authorities ordered the company to unwind the Meta deal amid intensifying concern in China over losing AI talent and researchers to the West. Manus resumed independent operations in August, after the Meta deal ended, and said it was required to delete some user data as part of the split. The company is also reported to be considering going public in Hong Kong.
Manus builds AI products and agents similar to those offered by Cursor, Lovable, and Replit — a chatbot and “vibe-coding” tools that let users build apps and websites, create designs and presentations, and generate video, among other tasks. It recently launched Manus 2.0, which it says brings a new architecture with new products and capabilities built around a new harness. The company also introduced Cue, a stand-alone app that gives personal AI agents their own email addresses, phone numbers, digital wallets, and computers, letting those agents communicate, handle tasks across services, and make payments within limits the user sets.
Why it matters
Manus’s ability to raise more than $500 million within months of being forced to unwind a $2 billion Meta deal shows investors still see strong demand for Chinese AI agent startups, even as geopolitical friction over AI talent and technology between China and the West intensifies.