Butterfly Effect, the parent company of Chinese AI lab Manus, said it has raised more than $500 million in its first funding round since Meta was forced to call off its $2 billion acquisition of the startup. Boyu Capital and IDG Capital led the round, and existing shareholders Tencent, HSG (formerly known as Sequoia China), ZhenFund, and others participated. The company said it will continue hiring both at home and abroad. Manus did not disclose its valuation; last month it was reported to be in talks with investors to raise $500 million at a $4 billion valuation.

Manus went viral following a demo of its AI agent last year, relocated its staff to Singapore in mid-2025, and announced the $2 billion Meta deal that December, when the startup was said to be pulling in annual recurring revenue of over $100 million. In April, Chinese authorities ordered the startup to unwind the deal amid intensifying worries in China over losing AI talent and researchers to the West. Manus resumed independent operations in August after the end of the Meta deal and said it was required to delete some user data as part of the split. The company is also reported to be considering going public in Hong Kong. Manus did not respond to TechCrunch’s questions about its valuation.

Manus makes AI products and agents similar to what Cursor, Lovable, and Replit offer. It provides a chatbot and vibe-coding tools that let users build apps and websites, create designs and presentations, generate video, and more. The company recently launched Manus 2.0, which it says brings a new architecture with new products and capabilities built around a new harness. It also introduced Cue, a standalone app that gives personal AI agents their own email addresses, phone numbers, digital wallets, and computers. Cue lets agents communicate, handle tasks across services, and make payments within limits set by the user.