AI agent startup Manus raised more than $500 million in the first funding round it has held since splitting with Meta. CNBC reported on Oct. 8 that Manus parent Butterfly Effect's round was led by private equity firm Bow Capital and venture investor IDG Capital. Existing shareholders Tencent, HSG and ZhenFund also joined with follow-on investment.
Butterfly Effect did not disclose its post-money valuation. Bloomberg reported last month that Manus would raise its valuation to $4 billion in this round, double its valuation at the previous fundraising. If so, Manus would become China’s highest-valued AI agent company.
The fundraising shows investors are continuing to back Manus even after Chinese authorities blocked Meta’s attempt to acquire it for $2 billion, CNBC reported.
Meta had been working to integrate the Manus team and technology into its systems, but the deal fell through after Chinese authorities intervened.
Manus later unveiled Manus 2.0 based on its own execution system, "Cascade". It also launched "Q," a standalone personal agent app that assigns each agent an email address, phone number and mobile wallet.
Chi-gyu Hwang
delight@d-today.co.kr