Manus raises more than $500 million after Meta deal collapses

From acquisition to independence

Manus drew wide attention last year with a demo of its AI agent. In mid-2025, its employees moved to Singapore. In December, the startup announced a $2 billion sale to Meta; at the time, reports put its annual recurring revenue above $100 million.

In April, Chinese authorities demanded that the deal be canceled, amid growing concern in China that AI specialists and researchers were moving to the West. Manus returned to operating independently in August, after the deal ended. The company said the separation required it to delete some user data.

Last month, reports said Manus was in talks with investors to raise $500 million at a $4 billion valuation. The company has not disclosed its valuation, and did not answer TechCrunch’s questions about it. The publication has also reported that Manus is considering a Hong Kong listing.

The product is broader than an agent demo

Manus sells products and AI agents in territory also occupied by Cursor, Lovable and Replit. Its lineup includes a chatbot and tools that turn natural-language descriptions into software. Users can build apps and websites, create designs and presentations, generate video and handle other tasks.

The company recently released Manus 2.0. Manus says the version introduces a new architecture, with new products and capabilities built on a new foundation it calls a harness.

It also introduced Cue, a separate app that gives personal AI agents their own email addresses, phone numbers, digital wallets and computers. Through Cue, agents can communicate, work across services and make payments within limits set by users.

The valuation question remains

The funding is a substantial step toward independence, but it does not settle the question the abandoned sale put in view: how much of Manus’s value came from its products and revenue, and how much from Meta’s willingness to pay $2 billion?

I think the most consequential detail is not the amount raised, but what Manus can now build without Meta. The company is expanding from an agent demo into software creation and agents with access to services and payment tools. Yet the announcement leaves out the valuation, while the earlier $4 billion figure was only reported as a fundraising target. Without that number, the round marks a return to the market, not a clear measure of what investors think the business is worth.