Manus raises more than $500 million after China unwound Meta's $2 billion deal
In brief
- Manus raised more than $500 million, parent company Butterfly Effect confirmed in a WeChat post.
- Boyu Capital and IDG Capital led the round; Tencent, HSG and ZhenFund also took part.
- Valuation was not disclosed; Bloomberg earlier reported a $4 billion target.
- China's NDRC ordered the Meta deal withdrawn on April 27; Meta cut ties in June.
A round with no price tag
Butterfly Effect didn't disclose a valuation. Bloomberg had previously reported that the company was seeking a $500 million raise at a $4 billion valuation (roughly double what Meta agreed to pay), as cited by Decrypt.
The company also didn't say how it'll spend the money. It said only that it plans to keep hiring in China and abroad.
From invite codes to a Beijing veto
Manus launched in March 2025 as an invitation-only Chinese rival to OpenAI's $200-a-month agent. Invite codes were reportedly listed on a Chinese resale marketplace for as much as 10 million yuan (over $1.3 million). The company acknowledged it used Anthropic's Claude and fine-tuned versions of Alibaba's Qwen models alongside its own.
Around mid-2025, Manus moved its team to Singapore, shut most of its China operations and laid off dozens of employees in July. By December, it had reached $100 million in annual recurring revenue, about eight months after launch. Meta announced that same month it would buy Manus for roughly $2 billion.
Then Beijing stepped in.
China's commerce ministry said in January it would assess the deal. By March, co-founders Xiao Hong and Ji Yichao had been summoned to Beijing and barred from leaving the country, according to Reuters as cited by Decrypt. On April 27, the National Development and Reform Commission ordered the deal withdrawn, and Meta cut ties in June.
"prohibit foreign investment in Manus in accordance with laws and regulations." (China's National Development and Reform Commission, as reported by Decrypt)
Independent again, in a crowded field
In August, Manus said it would operate independently again. It deleted some user data created on or after December 29, 2025, to separate its systems from Meta's. It now sells Cue, an app that gives agents their own phone numbers and digital wallets (payments are capped at a budget the user sets).
Meta's own coding agent, Muse Code, launched that same month. The wider agent market hasn't stood still either: OpenClaw, an open-source agent, collected well over 100,000 GitHub stars within weeks of going viral, and OpenAI hired its creator, Peter Steinberger, to lead its push into personal agents.
Frequently asked questions
Why did Meta's acquisition of Manus fall apart?
China's commerce ministry said in January it would assess the deal. On April 27, the National Development and Reform Commission, China's top economic planning agency, ordered the deal withdrawn, and Meta cut ties with Manus in June.
Who invested in Manus's new funding round?
Boyu Capital and IDG Capital led the round of more than $500 million, according to Butterfly Effect's WeChat post as reported by Decrypt. Existing backers Tencent, HSG (formerly Sequoia China) and ZhenFund also took part. No valuation was disclosed.
