Manus Raises $500 Million After Beijing Blocked Meta Deal
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Beijing stopped Meta from buying it, and now Chinese investors are paying up: Butterfly Effect, the company behind the A.I. agent Manus, has raised more than $500 million (about €445 million). The start-up announced the round in a WeChat post, TechCrunch reported. Boyu Capital and IDG Capital led the round, joined by existing investors Tencent, HSG (formerly Sequoia China) and ZhenFund.
Worth Twice the Meta Price
Manus did not disclose a valuation. In September, Bloomberg reported that Manus was in talks to raise $500 million at a valuation of about $4 billion (about €3.6 billion). That would be roughly twice what Meta had agreed to pay. The company plans to use the money in part to keep hiring in China and abroad. According to reports, it is also considering an I.P.O. in Hong Kong.
Bought by Meta, Stopped by Beijing
The back story is turbulent. In mid-2025, Manus moved its staff and headquarters from China to Singapore, and in December 2025 it agreed to be acquired by Meta for about $2 billion (about €1.8 billion). At the time, Manus reported annualized revenue of more than $100 million. In April 2026, Chinese authorities ordered the deal unwound, citing concerns about losing A.I. talent and know-how to the West. Meta then cut its ties, and Manus even had to delete user data as part of its relaunch as an independent company.
Agents With Their Own Email Addresses
Manus became known in early 2025 for a viral demo video of its A.I. agent, which researches and completes tasks on its own. The start-up now also offers a chatbot, vibe-coding tools for apps and websites, and tools for presentations, design and video. Its newest product is Cue, an app that gives personal A.I. agents their own email addresses, phone numbers, digital wallets and computers. The agents can communicate with one another and make payments within limits set by the user.
That puts Manus up against coding and app builders such as Cursor, Lovable and Replit, as well as the agents from the big A.I. labs. The market is crowded: The U.S. start-up Nous Research, for example, recently raised $90 million for its business agents.
