AI startup Manus raises more than $500 million

The artificial intelligence (AI) start-up Manus, whose acquisition by Meta had been blocked by the Chinese government, announced Thursday that it had completed a financing round which allowed it to raise more than $500 million.

Butterfly Effect, the parent company of Manus, said in a statement posted on Chinese social network WeChat that the funding round was led by Boyu Capital and IDG Capital, with participation from existing investors including Tencent, HSG Capital and ZhenFund.

The announcement comes just weeks after the China-founded, Singapore-based company said it had resumed operations independently after splitting from the US tech giant. The company has not disclosed its latest valuation, but previous press reports pointed to a capitalization of $4 billion, double the price Meta offered for the company last December.

Resumption of independent activities

Manus and Meta announced a $2 billion acquisition agreement last December, one of the largest buyout deals in Meta's history. But China's economic planning body said in April that the deal should be canceled, while Beijing reportedly restricted the overseas travel of two of Manus' co-founders.

In September, Manus announced the resumption of its independent activities, after months of efforts to dismantle the acquisition operation by Meta. Later that month, the company launched a major update to its AI agent tool, Manus 2.0, as well as a new standalone app called Cue.

Cue allows users to create their own personal agents for tasks like restaurant reservations and phone calls, similar to Meta's new personal agent tool, Muse. Manus said at the time that it was also building teams to “develop products for the domestic market.” The two co-founders, who were previously reportedly blocked from leaving China, were spotted at Manus' recent product launch event in Singapore last month.