China’s Manus raises over $500M in first funding round since split with Meta

Manus parent Butterfly Effect raised over $500 million after China forced Meta to drop its acquisition.

Butterfly Effect, parent of Chinese AI agent lab Manus, said it raised more than $500 million, led by Boyu Capital and IDG Capital, with Tencent, HSG, and ZhenFund participating. It is the first round since Chinese authorities ordered the company in April to unwind Meta’s planned $2 billion acquisition; Manus resumed independent operations in August and had to delete some user data. Manus did not disclose valuation, though it was recently reported to be discussing a $4 billion valuation and had claimed over $100 million in annual recurring revenue. It launched Manus 2.0 and Cue, which gives personal agents email addresses, phone numbers, wallets, and computers with user-set payment limits.