Manus parent Butterfly Effect has completed a financing of more than $500 million, 36Kr reported Thursday. Boyu Capital and IDG Capital led the round, while Tencent, HSG and ZhenFund returned as investors. The close moves the company beyond September’s fundraising talks and gives the independent AI-agent developer fresh capital after its forced split from Meta.
Manus sells subscriptions to an AI agent that does more than answer questions: users assign a goal and the software researches, writes code or produces finished work such as websites, slide decks and videos. The service is aimed at individuals and businesses that want to delegate a multistep project rather than operate each underlying tool themselves.
Manus says its latest release extends that workflow into connected software. A user can tell the agent to watch for a new email, calendar event, Slack message or Notion update and specify what should happen next. In an authorized desktop session, it can then work through approved files, browser tabs and applications while the user watches or steps away.
The company is also testing Cue, a separate app for personal agents. Each agent receives its own email address, phone number, wallet and computer, allowing it to send messages or make payments within a user-set budget. Multiple agents can divide work through a group chat, though Cue remains in free early access.
The financing caps an unusually sharp corporate reset. Meta bought Manus for more than $2 billion last December, but Beijing forced the companies to unwind the transaction and Manus resumed independent operations in September. TechCrunch, citing The Wall Street Journal, said the round was being discussed at a $4 billion valuation; the completion reports don’t disclose whether that valuation held.
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