Manus eyes $500M raise at $4B valuation, aiming for top AI-agent spot

Eight months ago, Manus was weeks away from becoming part of Meta. Now it’s raising half a billion dollars on its own terms.

The startup, built by Singapore-based Butterfly Effect, is targeting a $500 million funding round at a post-money valuation of $4 billion. If it closes at that number, Manus would claim the title of China’s most valuable AI-agent startup, a category that has become one of the most competitive corners of global tech.

From Meta’s inbox to independence

The backstory matters here. Meta had agreed to acquire Manus for over $2 billion in December 2025. Beijing blocked the deal, and the two companies spent the following months untangling themselves before completing a full operational split around May to June 2026.

The company had already raised roughly $75 million in a Benchmark-led Series B back in April 2025, at a valuation of around $500 million. The new round, if it closes, would represent an eightfold increase in valuation in roughly a year.

Manus CEO Xiao Hong, along with co-founders Ji Yichao and Zhang Tao, has steered the company toward independence following the blocked acquisition.

What Manus actually does

The product sits in the agentic AI category, which means it goes beyond chatbots that answer questions. Manus is designed to automate complex, multi-step tasks, the kind that previously required a human to navigate browser windows, fill out forms, extract data, and synthesize results across a workflow.

Manus is competing directly with other Chinese AI labs chasing the same use case, including ByteDance and Baidu.

Geopolitics as both headwind and tailwind

The blocked Meta deal is a clean illustration of how geopolitical friction shapes the AI funding landscape. Beijing’s veto of that acquisition effectively kept Manus in the Chinese ecosystem rather than letting it become an American platform asset.

Singapore as a base of operations adds a layer of strategic flexibility. The company relocated there in 2025, giving it a domicile that sits outside the most direct lines of regulatory fire while maintaining operational ties to Chinese engineering talent.

The IPO question

A Hong Kong listing is reportedly on the longer-term agenda, and the timing of this raise fits that trajectory. A $4 billion valuation from a credible set of investors gives underwriters something to work with.

Hong Kong has been actively courting tech listings from Chinese companies that find the US market increasingly inhospitable. Alibaba’s secondary listing pivot, along with a string of other high-profile decisions to list in Hong Kong rather than New York, has made the exchange a more relevant venue for exactly this kind of company.