China’s Manus raises over $500M in first funding round since split with Meta
TechCrunch Kate Park
Manus’ parent says it raised over $500M in its first round since Meta’s deal fell apart. The money and the split show the startup is back on its own, and still betting big.
Based on reporting by TechCrunch, Kate Park — read the original for the full story.
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Butterfly Effect, the parent company of Chinese AI lab Manus, said on Thursday that it has raised more than $500 million. The announcement came in a WeChat post and marks the company’s first funding round since Meta was forced to abandon its planned $2 billion acquisition of the startup.
Boyu Capital and IDG Capital led the round. Tencent, HSG, ZhenFund and other existing backers also joined in. Manus did not say what valuation came with the raise, though it was reported last month to be seeking $500 million at a $4 billion valuation.
The company said it will keep hiring in China and overseas. That fits the broader shape of Manus right now: a startup that went viral on the strength of an AI agent demo, then got pulled into a much larger story about talent, control and where Chinese AI companies are allowed to go.
Manus had moved staff to Singapore in mid-2025 before the Meta deal was announced that December. At the time, it was said to be bringing in more than $100 million in annual recurring revenue. In April, Chinese authorities ordered the deal unwound as worries grew about AI talent and researchers heading West. Manus resumed independent operations in August and said it had to delete some user data as part of the split.
The company is also reported to be thinking about a Hong Kong listing. And while it now makes chatbot and vibe-coding tools that look a lot like offerings from Cursor, Lovable and Replit, it has been pushing harder into its own product stack too, including Manus 2.0 and Cue, an app that gives AI agents email addresses, phone numbers, digital wallets and computers within user-set limits.
My take — AI-written commentary, not fact-checked reporting
This is what happens when an AI startup becomes a geopolitical object instead of just a product company. The money is real, but the bigger story is that China would rather keep the talent than sell the whole thing to Meta and call it a day. Everyone loves an AI agent until it starts looking like an export-control problem.
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