Manus, the Chinese AI startup that Beijing blocked from selling to Meta, has now secured over $500 million from domestic investors. The funding round, announced via WeChat, marks the company’s first capital raise since its forced split from the American tech giant.
Boyu Capital and IDG Capital led the investment, with participation from existing backers Tencent, HSG (formerly Sequoia China), and ZhenFund. The valuation remains undisclosed, though Bloomberg reported in September that Manus had been negotiating a $500 million raise at roughly $4 billion. That figure would double what Meta had originally agreed to pay.
The road here has been anything but smooth.
Manus relocated its workforce and headquarters from China to Singapore in mid-2025, then struck a deal that December for Meta to acquire the startup for about $2 billion. The company was generating annualized revenue north of $100 million at that point.
But Chinese regulators intervened in April 2026, ordering the acquisition undone over concerns about losing AI expertise and technology to Western firms. Meta severed the relationship, and Manus relaunched as an independent entity, a process that included purging user data.
The startup first grabbed attention in early 2025 with a viral demo showing its AI agent independently researching and completing tasks. Its product lineup has since expanded to include a chatbot, tools for building apps and websites without code, and software for presentations, design, and video work.
The newest offering, called Cue, gives personal AI agents their own email addresses, phone numbers, digital wallets, and computers. These agents can message each other and handle payments within user-defined limits.
Manus now competes with coding platforms like Cursor, Lovable, and Replit, along with agent products from major AI labs. The space is getting crowded. Nous Research, an American startup, recently raised $90 million for its business-focused agents. Manus plans to use its new funding partly for continued hiring across China and international markets, with reports suggesting a potential Hong Kong IPO on the horizon.
