By | 强调Next
According to a report by The Information on June 18, early Chinese investors of Manus plan to spend $2 billion, approximately 13.5 billion yuan, to buy back the company from Meta. The investors mentioned in the report include Tencent, Sequoia Capital China (formerly Sequoia Capital China Fund), and ZhenFund.
$2 billion was precisely the consideration Meta paid to acquire Manus in December last year. Liu Yuan, a partner at ZhenFund, publicly stated at the time that this was Meta's third-largest acquisition since its founding, only behind WhatsApp and Scale AI. Now history seems to be repeating itself, but with the roles of buyer and seller completely reversed.
1 · From Distributing Proceeds to Buyback
Insiders revealed that institutions such as Sequoia Capital China, ZhenFund, and Benchmark have already distributed the proceeds from the Meta acquisition to their respective limited partners. Tencent is also a party that has secured its gains.
After the acquisition was halted, Sequoia Capital China and ZhenFund did not ask LPs to return the already distributed profits. Instead, they intend to use newly raised funds to repurchase their respective Manus equity at Meta's original acquisition price. Tencent will also participate in this round of buyback.
It is worth noting that Benchmark will not participate in the buyback. An investor told The Information that this means Chinese investors will ultimately hold a larger proportion of Manus shares, and the company's equity structure will be more concentrated in Chinese capital than before the acquisition.
2 · Joint Venture Structure, Paving the Way for HK Listing
As part of the buyback plan, Manus is considering adjusting its corporate structure by establishing a Sino-foreign joint venture registered in mainland China. Foreign media analysis suggests this joint venture structure is designed to allow Chinese investors to continue holding the company's equity in compliance with regulations, while also preparing for a future Hong Kong IPO. The report states that Chinese investors plan to increase their capital in Manus in US dollars.
This buyback is widely interpreted as a direct response to the halt order issued in April this year. At that time, the Foreign Investment Security Review Office under the National Development and Reform Commission issued an announcement, prohibiting the "foreign acquisition of the Manus project" and requiring the parties involved to rescind the transaction and restore the original equity status.
Bloomberg previously reported two details. First, in May this year, Manus's three founders, Xiao Hong, Ji Yichao, and Zhang Tao, discussed raising about $1 billion from external investors to complete the buyback from Meta, with a valuation not less than the original $2 billion. The funding shortfall might be covered by the founding team with their own funds. Second, since June, Meta has severed the data connection between Manus and its internal systems, and notified employees to gradually migrate Manus-related projects to Meta's own systems, with no new Manus-related work to be initiated. The report by The Information is the most specific disclosure about the buyback plan to date.
3 · Business Data: Revenue Quadrupled or Quintupled in Half a Year
Insiders revealed that since being acquired by Meta, Manus's performance has been growing rapidly. Its current annualized revenue run rate has climbed to $400-500 million, approximately 2.7 to 3.4 billion yuan. At the time of the Meta acquisition, this figure was only $100 million, about 680 million yuan.
In other words, from its acquisition in December last year to now, Manus's revenue scale has increased four to fivefold in about half a year. This growth rate is also a key reason investors are willing to repurchase at the original price rather than trying to bargain for a lower price.
4 · Who Wins
From a financial perspective, the rescission of this acquisition might actually benefit Manus's early investors. Two insiders analyzed that the investors essentially get to reclaim the company's equity at a cost far below its current sale valuation. Furthermore, Manus has the opportunity to pursue an independent listing in the future, no longer needing to be part of the Meta ecosystem.
However, details are still being finalized. Both insiders emphasized that specific terms of the buyback transaction, including the funding ratio, equity design of the joint venture company, and the pace of capital increase, are still under negotiation.
Manus's financing journey has been quite legendary. In the Seed round in February 2023, ZhenFund invested about $3 million, resulting in a post-money valuation of $14 million; in the Angel round in August of the same year, the valuation rose to $50 million; in the Series A round in November 2024, Sequoia Capital China, Tencent, ZhenFund, and Wang Huiwen jointly invested, valuing the company at $85 million; in the Series B round in April 2025, led by Benchmark, the valuation approached $500 million. In just over two years, the valuation increased over a hundredfold, only to be acquired by Meta for $2 billion at the end of last year.
Now, this transaction is being rolled back. For Chinese AI startups, Manus's combination of "buyback + joint venture + Hong Kong IPO" might become a reference case for handling compliance issues in cross-border M&A going forward.
