Manus development team completes $75 million funding at nearly $500 million valuation, led by Benchmark

Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter, that the Chinese startup behind Manus AI raised $75 million in a funding round led by U.S. venture capital firm Benchmark.
The funding round, which also included participation from existing investors, reportedly increased the startup's valuation fivefold to nearly $500 million. The company, called The Butterfly Effect, plans to use the funds to expand into markets such as the US, Japan and the Middle East, according to the report.
Manus attracted attention in March when it released a general-purpose AI agent capable of handling tasks such as resume screening, trip planning and stock analysis. The company claims that the agent outperforms OpenAI's recently launched Deep Research tool on a number of metrics.
According to Chinese media reports cited by Bloomberg, Manus had previously raised more than $10 million from investors such as Tencent, Zhen Fund and HSG.