Manus Seeks $500 Million at $4 Billion Valuation After Beijing Blocks Meta's $2 Billion Deal
Updated
Updated · TechCrunch · Sep 18
Manus Seeks $500 Million at $4 Billion Valuation After Beijing Blocks Meta's $2 Billion Deal
1 articles · Updated · TechCrunch · Sep 18
Summary
$500 million is the target in Manus's new fundraising talks, with the Chinese AI startup seeking a $4 billion valuation after restarting as an independent company.
Beijing blocked Meta's planned $2 billion acquisition over export-control and foreign-investment concerns, forcing Manus to unwind the deal and buy back shares at about a $2 billion valuation.
IDG Capital, Boyu Capital, CATL and existing backers including Tencent, HSG and Zhenfund are among potential investors, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Hong Kong is emerging as the next step: Manus is weighing a restructuring ahead of a possible IPO after telling users in August to back up data that had to be deleted for regulatory compliance.
Manus, which went viral for its AI agent demo and had more than $100 million in annual recurring revenue at the time of the Meta deal, is trying to reestablish itself in a crowded AI tools market.