❯ Manus is reportedly valued at $4 billion after its $500 million-plus round, the highest among AI application companies with a China background

The missing valuation arrivesWhen Manus parent Butterfly Effect announced a round of more than $500 million on October 8, it disclosed no valuation. LatePost reported the same day that Manus now has a post-money valuation of $4 billion, making it the most highly valued AI application company with a China background, with the most cumulative funding and the largest cash reserves. Boyu Capital and IDG Capital led the round, with existing shareholders Tencent, HongShan (Sequoia China) and ZhenFund participating again.

An agent that finishes the jobManus launched in March 2025 and went viral on a demo of its AI agent. As TechCrunch describes it, the company offers a chatbot and tools for building apps and websites in natural language, and can also produce designs, presentations and video. When Meta announced its acquisition in December 2025, Manus was reportedly bringing in more than $100 million in annual recurring revenue.

Twice the last priceMeta’s purchase price was about $2 billion; the deal was not completed, the founding team and existing shareholders bought the shares back from Meta, and the company said on September 1 that it had resumed independent operations. On LatePost’s figure, the new valuation is double that earlier price. According to SiliconStar, it is also the largest single round to date in China’s AI application sector.

More cash, more rivalsSiliconStar notes that Manus released Manus 2.0 and a personal agent app called Cue on September 28, is developing a product for the Chinese market, and has opened 17 positions. Leading on cash reserves means it can outlast comparable application companies on hiring and compute; but an agent product has to call other companies’ large models, and the more users it has, the more it pays model providers.

▮ SIGNALAn application company’s valuation doubled after an acquisition that did not close, which shows investors no longer need a big-tech buyer to anchor the price of the agent layer.