Manus targets $4B valuation in $500M round after Meta split
What's the deal? Manus, the Chinese-founded agentic AI startup, is raising US$323.5M Series B that would double its valuation to $4 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. It would become China's most valuable startup in AI agents. Existing backers include Tencent, HSGDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and ZhenFund; the new investors remain unclear.
Why now? This is Manus's first fundraising since Beijing ordered it to split from Meta, which had agreed to buy the company at US$1.29B valuation. Regulators blocked that deal, citing concerns that China risked losing valuable technology to a geopolitical rival.
How did it get here? Manus was founded early last year in China, then relocated staff to Singapore after backing from Silicon Valley firm Benchmark. Meta announced its acquisition in December once the startup topped $100 million in annualised revenue, but Beijing forced the deal to unwind. Manus and Meta completed their operational split in May and halted data-sharing.
Founders and existing backers bought back Meta's shares at the same $2 billion valuation. Tencent became the biggest external investor after acquiring Benchmark's stake, which exited with a multi-fold return.
By the numbers: The round ranks in the top 1% by size among 58 comparable Series B deals in the sector and region over the trailing 48 months. Earlier this month, Manus said it had resumed independent operations, with its founding team continuing to lead and develop generative AI agents globally.
What could go wrong? Agent makers face an uphill battle against broader foundation models like Moonshot's Kimi and Anthropic's ClaudeDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, which increasingly handle general desktop tasks as well as Manus. Manus does not train its own base models from scratch.
The signal: The deal shows investors still willing to bet on AI agents despite falling prices and improving foundation models. US$2.59B valuation could position Manus, like model labs such as Moonshot, for a Hong Kong listing. Rival EvokenDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, behind design agent LovartDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, is raising at US$1.94B valuation.
Read more: businesstimes.com.sg, Bloomberg
Image credit: Generated with Gemini
