Butterfly Effect, the parent company of Chinese AI lab Manus, said in a WeChat post on Thursday that it has raised more than $500 million in its first funding round since Meta was forced to abandon a planned $2 billion acquisition. This round is the company’s first outside financing since the collapse of that deal.
Investors and participation
The funding round was led by Boyu Capital and IDG Capital. Existing shareholders including Tencent, HSG (formerly Sequoia China), ZhenFund and others also participated. The company said it will continue hiring both domestically and internationally.
Manus did not disclose a post-money valuation. Previous reports indicated the company had been in talks to raise $500 million at a $4 billion valuation.
Timeline and context
- Manus gained wide attention after a demo of its AI agent.
- The startup relocated its staff to Singapore in mid-2025.
- In December 2025, Manus announced a $2 billion acquisition deal with Meta.
- At that time Manus was reported to be generating over $100 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR).
- In April, Chinese authorities ordered the startup to unwind the deal amid growing concerns in China about losing AI talent and researchers to the West.
- In August, Manus resumed independent operations following the end of the Meta agreement and said it was required to delete some user data as part of the split.
Products and future plans
Manus develops AI products and agents similar to offerings from companies such as Cursor, Lovable and Replit. It provides a chatbot and "vibe-coding" tools that enable users to build apps and websites, create designs and presentations, generate video, and more.
The company recently launched Manus 2.0, which it says introduces a new architecture and new products and capabilities built around a new harness. It also unveiled Cue, a standalone app that assigns personal AI agents their own email addresses, phone numbers, digital wallets and computers. Cue lets agents communicate, carry out tasks across services, and make payments within limits set by the user.
Manus did not respond to TechCrunch’s questions about its valuation. Media reports also indicate the company is considering a possible IPO in Hong Kong.
