Chinese AI Startup Manus Secures $75M Funding Led by Benchmark, Valuation Soars to $500M

Chinese AI Startup Manus Secures Major Funding

Manus AI, a Chinese startup specializing in AI agent tools, has successfully raised $75 million in a funding round led by Silicon Valley venture capital firm Benchmark. This investment has catapulted the company's valuation to approximately $500 million, marking a significant milestone in its growth trajectory 1

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The Company Behind Manus

Butterfly Effect, the Beijing-based company behind Manus AI, has seen its valuation quintuple from its previous funding round. The startup had previously raised over $10 million from notable investors including Tencent Holdings and HSG (formerly Sequoia China) 1

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Manus AI's Technology and Offerings

Manus AI gained attention in March when it launched a demo of a general AI agent capable of performing various tasks. The company claims its AI can screen CVs, analyze stocks, and create travel itineraries, potentially rivaling or surpassing capabilities of other AI tools like OpenAI's Deep Research 3

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Recent reports suggest that Manus is powered by advanced language models from Anthropic PBC, specifically either Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Claude 3.7 Sonnet. These models support a "computer use" feature, allowing them to complete multi-step tasks using external applications 5

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Monetization and Subscription Plans

In late March, Manus introduced paid subscription plans, ranging from $39 to $199 per month. The higher-tier plan allows users to run up to five simultaneous tasks and provides increased compute resources for processing prompts 5

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Global AI Competition and Market Position

The funding comes at a time when competition in the global AI market is intensifying. The annual Stanford AI Index has highlighted the rising quality of Chinese AI models, with performance gaps between US and Chinese models narrowing significantly in recent years 3

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Expansion Plans

Butterfly Effect intends to use the newly acquired capital to expand Manus AI's services into new markets, including the United States, Japan, and the Middle East 2

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. This international expansion strategy underscores the company's ambitions to compete on a global scale.

Industry Reactions and Comparisons

The success of Manus AI has drawn comparisons to other Chinese AI companies like DeepSeek, whose model release in January 2025 signaled growing competition for US AI leadership. Other major Chinese tech companies such as Baidu and ByteDance have also entered the AI agent market, further intensifying the competitive landscape 3

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While Manus AI has shown promise, it's worth noting that early testing by TechCrunch revealed some limitations in the AI's performance, with certain tasks not working as well as advertised 1

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. The company acknowledges that its offering is still in the testing phase, indicating potential for further improvements and refinements 3

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