Manus raises more than $500M, its first round since China forced the end of its $2B Meta deal
Boyu Capital and IDG Capital led the round for the AI agent startup's parent, Butterfly Effect, with Tencent, HSG and ZhenFund returning -- six months after Chinese authorities ordered the Meta acquisition unwound.
Butterfly Effect, the parent company of AI agent startup Manus, said in a WeChat post on October 8 that it has raised "more than $500 million," TechCrunch reported -- its first funding round since Meta was forced to call off its $2 billion acquisition of the company. Boyu Capital and IDG Capital led the round, with existing shareholders Tencent, HSG (formerly Sequoia China) and ZhenFund participating. Manus didn't disclose a valuation; it was reported last month to be in talks to raise $500 million at a $4 billion valuation, and the company said it "will continue hiring both at home and abroad."
How it got here
Manus went viral with an agent demo, moved its staff to Singapore in mid-2025, and announced the $2 billion Meta deal that December, when it was reportedly bringing in over $100 million in annual recurring revenue. In April, Chinese authorities ordered the deal unwound amid concern about AI talent leaving for the West. Manus resumed independent operations in August, and said it had to delete some user data as part of the split. It's now reportedly considering a Hong Kong IPO.
Why it matters
The funding is the headline, but the forced unwind -- including deleted user data -- is the part buyers should note. For a company standardizing on a general-purpose agent vendor, ownership and jurisdiction are now operational risks, not just legal footnotes: a product can change hands, then change back, with data obligations shifting each time. That's worth pricing into any agent contract alongside per-task cost.