Manus raises over $500 million after Meta deal was scrapped — CNBC
Chinese AI-agent startup Manus has raised more than $500 million in its first funding round after Meta was forced to abandon its acquisition of the company. CNBC reports.
Round investors
Manus’s parent company, Butterfly Effect, said the round was led by private equity investment firm Boyu Capital and venture investor IDG Capital. Existing shareholders Tencent, HSG and ZhenFund also made additional investments.
The company did not disclose its post-funding valuation. At the same time, Bloomberg reported last month that Manus’s valuation could have doubled to $4 billion as part of this round. At that level, the startup could become the country’s most valuable developer of AI agents.
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After the split with Meta
Meta announced the acquisition of Manus in December, but Chinese regulators blocked the deal, which was valued at approximately $2 billion. China’s National Development and Reform Commission said it had decided to prohibit foreign investment in the Manus project. At that time, Meta had already begun integrating Manus’s team and technology into its own system.
Earlier this month, Manus announced the resumption of independent operations following the split with Meta. According to the company, its founding team will continue developing generative AI agents for users around the world.
After the split, the startup introduced Manus 2.0 based on its internal task-execution system Cascade, as well as a separate personal-agent app, Cue. In it, each agent has its own email address, phone number and mobile wallet.
