Manus Parent Company Butterfly Effect Raises Over $500 Million in New Funding
Butterfly Effect, the parent company behind the AI agent platform Manus, has announced the completion of a new funding round exceeding $500 million led by Boyu Capital and IDG Capital. Existing backers including Tencent, Sequoia China, and ZhenFund also continued their participation in the round. This major capital injection marks a successful stabilization for Manus following regulatory intervention by Chinese authorities that halted its foreign acquisition. It underscores strong institutional confidence in autonomous AI agents and solidifies Tencent's leading role as a primary investor in prominent Chinese-incubated AI startups. The financing follows a complex corporate restructuring where the founding team and domestic investors bought back Meta's stake at a $2 billion valuation to comply with regulator rulings against 'bathing-style' offshore transfers. Benchmark exited during the repurchase, allowing Tencent to step up as Manus's largest external institutional shareholder before this new cash injection.
## BACKGROUND
Manus is an autonomous generative AI agent developed by Butterfly Effect that launched in early 2025 to automate workflows and complex web tasks. The term 'bathing-style global expansion' refers to a practice where Chinese-incubated technology startups relocate abroad and sever domestic ties to evade local regulatory oversight before selling out to foreign entities.