Manus is back in the spotlight.
The Chinese-founded artificial intelligence startup will be acquired by Meta in a deal reported to be worth more than $2 billion. This is one of the most high-profile cases of a US tech giant acquiring an Asian AI company.
Manas made headlines in March when it unveiled an AI agent designed to autonomously perform tasks such as resume screening and stock price analysis.
The startup was founded in China and moved its headquarters to Singapore in mid-2025.
What does Manas do?
Manus was launched in March by Chinese AI product studio Butterfly Effect. Its creators pitched it as the world's first “general purpose” AI agent, a system designed to perform tasks independently.
Since its launch, the startup has continued to expand what agents can do, rolling out features that allow users to use Manus for design work, slide creation, and completing tasks directly via a web browser.
Manas will be able to independently perform complex tasks such as market research, coding and data analysis, Mehta said Monday when announcing the acquisition.
Business Insider tested the tool in its early stages in March and found it to be ambitious but inconsistent in its execution, including instances where the data was hallucinatory.
Earlier this month, Manas announced annual recurring revenue of more than $100 million and a total revenue run rate of more than $125 million, including usage-based fees and other revenue sources.
The company raised $75 million in Benchmark-led funding in April, giving it a valuation of about $500 million, Bloomberg reported. Manas said in an update this month that the company currently employs about 105 people in Singapore, Tokyo and San Francisco, and will soon open an office in Paris.
Who is its founder?
Manas was founded by Xiaohong, a Chinese entrepreneur, software engineer, and CEO of Butterfly Effect.
Mr. Xiao, known as “Red” in Chinese technology circles, was born in 1992 and studied software engineering at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in central China.
After graduating, Xiao founded Nightingale Technology in 2015, developing enterprise productivity tools such as WeChat's Yi Ban assistant, which has reached millions of users in China.
In 2022, he launched Butterfly Effect and rolled out Monica, an AI-powered browser extension that aggregates multiple large-scale language models. After the acquisition, Mr. Xiao will become Meta's vice president.
Mr. Xiao was joined at Manas by co-founder Ji Yichao, also known as “Peak Ji,” who was the chief scientist at Butterfly Effect. Mr. Ji leads Manus' technology and infrastructure development.
Ji, 32, was the public face of Manas at its launch and introduced the AI agent in its debut video in March. Ji has a long history of developing consumer technology products and was named to MIT Technology Review's Innovators Under 35 list this year.
The founding team also includes Zhang Tao, head of product at Manus. According to his LinkedIn profile, he has held multiple product roles, including global head of product at ByteDance from 2022 to 2023 and product manager at Tencent.
Why did Meta acquire Manus?
Meta said the acquisition is part of its efforts to expand general-purpose AI agents across its apps and services.
Manus plans to continue operating as Manus Inc., the company said in a statement Monday. While it is a standalone product, it also integrates its technology into Meta's wide range of AI products.
Manas said the partnership is not disruptive to customers and that the company will continue to sell and operate its subscription services. The company will also continue its operations from Singapore.
“Joining Meta allows us to build a stronger and more sustainable foundation without changing the way Manas works or makes decisions,” Xiao said.
Business Insider's Hugh Langley writes that acquiring Manas could boost Meta's AI revenue and give it a distribution advantage.
What will happen to Manus' relationship with China?
Mr. Manus' relationship with China is attracting attention.
In May, Sen. John Cornyn questioned the U.S. investment in Manus in a post on X, asking whether U.S. capital should support AI companies with ties to China amid increased competition from Beijing.
In a statement to Business Insider on Tuesday, a Meta spokesperson said the deal completely severed Manus' remaining ties with China.
“Following the transaction, there will be no continued Chinese ownership of Manus AI, and Manus AI will discontinue its services and operations in China,” a spokesperson told Business Insider. This includes shutting down our AI assistant, Monica, and reassigning related employees.
Manus employees who join Meta will no longer have access to customer data, and Meta will continue to geo-block access to its AI models, the spokesperson added.
