Manus has raised more than $500 million in new funding. Boyu Capital led the round, with Tencent among the backers. Manus announced the raise on October 8, 2026, at a reported $4 billion valuation. The raise is its first major round since a planned Meta acquisition fell apart.
Manus builds a general purpose AI agent. It runs multistep tasks on a user’s computer, from research to building simple apps. The company is based in Singapore and launched in 2022 as Butterfly Effect.
What does Manus do?
Manus builds a general purpose AI agent that completes tasks on its own. A user gives it a goal in plain language, and the agent plans the steps, uses tools, and does the work. It can gather research, write and run code, build small apps, and handle long tasks in the background.
Its latest release, Manus 2.0, added several features. A new harness lets users shape how the underlying models behave. A Cloud Computer hosts code, websites, and long running jobs. A feature called Cue gives agents their own email, a wallet, and a shared board so they can work together.
The round at a glance
| Detail | Info |
|---|---|
| Amount | $500 million or more |
| Lead investor | Boyu Capital |
| Other backers | Tencent, and others |
| Valuation | ~$4 billion (reported) |
| Date | October 8, 2026 |
| Headquarters | Singapore |
Who invested in Manus’s round?
Boyu Capital, a private equity firm, led the round. Tencent took part, along with other investors who were not named. Earlier backers include Benchmark, which put in $75 million in April 2025, and a smaller $10 million raise in 2024.
Why did Meta’s acquisition of Manus fall through?
Meta tried to buy Manus and the deal was blocked. Meta reportedly offered to acquire the company late in 2025 at around half its current $4 billion valuation. Chinese regulators blocked the deal, and it was scrapped in April 2026. Manus went back to running as an independent company, and this round is the result.
Meta went on to build its own agent instead, an app called Muse, which recently passed ChatGPT on the US App Store.
What is Manus’s valuation?
Manus is valued at about $4 billion, according to a Bloomberg report from September 2026. That is roughly double what Meta reportedly offered to pay for the whole company less than a year earlier. The jump shows how fast prices have moved for the leading consumer AI agents.
Why does this round matter?
Manus is one of the clearest tests of the general purpose agent. Most agent startups go deep into one field, like legal or customer service. Manus is trying to build an agent that handles almost anything on a computer. That is a harder bet, but a much larger market if it works.
The round also marks a turn in the story. A company that was nearly absorbed by Meta is now independent, well funded, and competing directly with the big labs. The timing is tight too. A day before this raise, the rival agent startup Nous Research raised $90 million.
What is next for Manus?
Manus will use the money to push its agent further and grow its user base. The open question is the same one facing the whole field. General agents have to be reliable across a huge range of tasks, and that is hard. Manus also sits in a crowded market, with OpenAI, Meta, and others all building consumer agents of their own.
Frequently asked questions
Manus raised more than $500 million in a round announced on October 8, 2026, at a reported $4 billion valuation.
Boyu Capital led the round, with Tencent among the backers. Earlier investors include Benchmark, which invested $75 million in April 2025.
Manus is a general purpose AI agent that completes multistep tasks on a user’s computer. It can research, write and run code, and build small apps from a plain language goal.
Meta reportedly agreed to buy Manus in late 2025, but Chinese regulators blocked the deal and it was scrapped in April 2026. Manus then resumed as an independent company.
Manus is valued at about $4 billion, as reported in September 2026. That is roughly double what Meta had offered to pay for the company a year earlier.