While AI agents require a certain amount of hand retention, co -founder and scientist chief of Manus, Ji Yichao, said his product is “truly autonomous.”
The Chinese startup behind Manus AI assured a financing round directed by the US risk company.
The Silicon Valley investor joined several of the Startup sponsors in a financing of $ 75 million that quintupo its valuation to almost half a billion dollars, said the family of people with the matter. The company behind Manus, Butterfly Effect, intends to use capital to expand its service to other markets, including the United States, Japan and the Middle East, people said, asking that private deliberations are not identified.
In March, Manus observed what a general agent of AI capable of evaluating curriculums, creating travel itineraries and analyzing actions in response to basic instructions. His service served better on some fronts than Openai’s deep research, another recently published agent, the company said at that time. Since then, several Bytedance Ltd. companies to Baidu Inc. have followed their example with their own competitors agent platforms.
Manus representatives declined to comment, while Benchmark did not respond to the consultations.
While AI agents require a certain amount of hand retention, co -founder and scientist chief of Manus, Ji Yichao, said his product is “truly autonomous.” An elegant video demonstration of the company quickly went viral, which caused a struggle for a limited number of access cores and won the Deepseek start comparisons, the Chinese upstart that shook the Silicon Valley in January a capule.
Like Depseek, Manus caused questions about the leadership of the United States about artificial intelligence, this time in a category of products that US technology companies see as a key investment area. The initial reactions of Manus users mixed: some declared him innovative, others said he felt halfway.
Last months, the startup began offering a subscription of $ 39 per month and an updated $ 199 option with the OpenAis Chatgpt Pro line, thought a somewhat aggressive price for a membership service that is still in a test phase.
Manus raised more than $ 10 million in previous financing, have reported several media based in China, including Tencent Holdings Ltd. and prominent venture capital firms Zhenfund and HSG, formally Chinese Sequoia.
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Posted on April 25, 2025