Chinese AI startup Manus has raised more than $500 million in its first funding round, CNBC reported, after Meta’s attempt to acquire the company fell through.
Manus parent company Butterfly Effect said the round was led by investment funds Boyu Capital and IDG Capital, with participation from existing shareholders including Tencent, HSG and ZhenFund.
After the current round closes, Manus’ valuation is expected to double to as much as $4 billion. That would make it China’s most valuable company focused on developing AI agents.
Dan Wang, China director at Eurasia Group, said the short-term fallout from the Meta situation had been contained and that investors were willing to back Manus as an independent company.
Meta had earlier planned to buy Manus for $2 billion and had already begun integrating the startup’s technology into its systems. The deal was later blocked by Chinese regulators, who barred foreign investment in the project. After the split, the developer resumed independent operations, unveiled a new version of Manus 2.0 built on its Cascade system, and launched the standalone Cue app, while Meta released its own AI agent, Muse, in early September.
