Key Highlights
- Butterfly Effect, the parent company of Manus, successfully raised over $500 million, with Boyu Capital and IDG Capital leading the funding round, which also saw participation from Tencent, HSG, and ZhenFund.
- Meta had announced plans to acquire Manus for approximately $2 billion in December 2025, but following an order from China's planning agency on April 27 to unwind the deal, Manus declared its intent to operate independently in August.
- Just eight months after its launch in March 2025, Manus reported annual recurring revenue of $100 million; however, the company did not disclose its valuation for this funding round.
Manus, an AI startup originally acquired by Meta for about $2 billion before being forced to return to independent status by Chinese authorities, has raised over $500 million in new funding.
The funding round was confirmed by its parent company, Butterfly Effect, via a WeChat announcement, with Boyu Capital and IDG Capital at the forefront and existing investors like Tencent, HSG (previously known as Sequoia China), and ZhenFund participating.
While specific plans for the new capital were not revealed, the company intends to continue hiring both in China and internationally. Although Butterfly Effect did not provide a valuation for this round, Bloomberg previously indicated the company was aiming for a $500 million raise at a $4 billion valuation, which is roughly double the amount Meta had initially agreed to pay.
Manus specializes in developing AI agents that go beyond traditional chatbots; these agents can autonomously complete tasks such as booking travel or analyzing stock data. Upon its launch in March 2025, Manus positioned itself as a competitor to OpenAI's $200 monthly subscription service, which was available by invitation only.
The demand for Manus's service was intense, with invite codes reportedly selling for as high as 10 million yuan (over $1.3 million) on Chinese resale platforms. The company has acknowledged leveraging Anthropic's Claude and customized versions of Alibaba's Qwen models in addition to its own technology.
At that time, agentic AI was still emerging, and Manus was exploring this concept before larger AI companies began to invest heavily in it.
By mid-2025, Manus had relocated its team to Singapore, largely winding down its operations in China and laying off several employees in July. By December, it achieved $100 million in annual recurring revenue, with subscriptions totaling that amount just eight months post-launch, coinciding with Meta's announcement of its acquisition.
As interest shifted, OpenClaw, an open-source agent that operates locally and can be controlled via apps like WhatsApp and Telegram, gained popularity, garnering over 100,000 GitHub stars shortly after its viral release.
Following this, OpenAI recruited OpenClaw's creator, Peter Steinberger, to spearhead its own efforts in personal AI agents.
In January, China's commerce ministry stated it would evaluate the Manus acquisition, leading to the summoning of co-founders Xiao Hong and Ji Yichao to Beijing in March, where they were reportedly restricted from leaving the country, according to Reuters. On April 27, China's National Development and Reform Commission mandated that the deal be retracted, asserting that it would "prohibit foreign investment in Manus in accordance with laws and regulations."
Meta severed ties with Manus in June, and by August, Manus announced its return to independent operations, erasing some user data created after December 29, 2025, to ensure a clean break from Meta's systems.
In the same month, Meta launched its own coding agent, Muse Code, entering a competitive market where it appeared to be lagging against established players like Codex and Claude Code. Manus, on the other hand, has introduced Cue, an application that provides agents with their own phone numbers and digital wallets, with spending capped at a user-defined budget.
The situation surrounding Manus is indicative of a broader tightening of regulations from Beijing: in May, China mandated that certain senior AI employees at private companies, including Alibaba and DeepSeek, obtain approval before traveling abroad, as Chinese AI capabilities begin to rival those of American firms.