Butterfly Effect, the parent company of Chinese AI lab Manus, announced on Thursday via a WeChat post that it has closed a funding round exceeding $500 million. This marks the company's first raise since Meta was compelled to abandon its $2 billion acquisition of the startup.

The round was led by Boyu Capital and IDG Capital, with participation from existing shareholders including Tencent, HSG (previously Sequoia China), ZhenFund, and others. The AI company stated it plans to continue recruiting talent both domestically and internationally.

While Manus declined to reveal its valuation, reports last month indicated the company was negotiating with investors to raise $500 million at a $4 billion valuation.

Manus gained widespread attention after a demo of its AI agent last year. The company moved its staff to Singapore in mid-2025, then announced a $2 billion acquisition agreement with Meta that December. At that point, the startup was reportedly generating annual recurring revenue exceeding $100 million.

In April, Chinese regulators directed the AI startup to dissolve the deal, reflecting growing concerns in China about losing AI talent and researchers to Western companies. Following the termination of the Meta deal, Manus returned to independent operations in August and disclosed that it was obligated to remove certain user data as part of the separation. The company is also reportedly exploring a public listing in Hong Kong.

Manus develops AI products and agents comparable to offerings from companies like Cursor, Lovable, and Replit. Its platform provides a chatbot and vibe-coding tools that enable users to build apps and websites, create designs and presentations, generate video, and more.

Recently, the company launched Manus 2.0, which it describes as featuring a new architecture with fresh products and capabilities built around a new harness. It also unveiled Cue, a standalone app that equips personal AI agents with their own email addresses, phone numbers, digital wallets, and computers. The app allows agents to communicate, manage tasks across various services, and execute payments within user-defined limits.