Manus Team Joins Meta: A Decade-Long Journey for a Group of Young People

From a 2016 hackathon to the eve of the 2025 New Year's bell, from "small plugins" to Manus, from Nightingale Tech to Butterfly Effect — ZhenFund has accompanied Red and his team for a full decade. This is Meta's third-largest acquisition since its founding, surpassed only by WhatsApp and Scale AI. After the merger closes, Butterfly Effect will continue to operate independently at the company, team, and product levels, while deeply integrating with Meta's core global consumer products.

Founder Red and the early partners hail from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, without the halo of overseas study or the résumé of big-tech executives. They started from a residential apartment, persevering through hardship and iteration, and built a product that domestic and international tech giants rushed to imitate and pay homage to — setting a trend and defining what may be the most important Agent product form of the AI era.

Though the team does not train models, they were ahead in recognizing that deep user understanding and exceptional product engineering are the scarcest assets of this era. These capabilities may not often be regarded as "core technology," yet they are the decisive factors in whether a company and product succeed. Facts have borne this out — since launch, Manus has set record after record for the fastest user and revenue growth of any global AI product.

Along the way, they stumbled through exploring more than a dozen products, receiving praise and anticipation, shouldering doubt and setbacks, and ultimately produced Manus, a product that burst onto the scene. This startup from China sparked global tech discourse for the first time, bringing together top-tier investment institutions from both China and the US, star entrepreneurs, and internet giants, ultimately standing before the very company that once defined Silicon Valley's young entrepreneurial spirit — Meta. Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg told Red that he is actually a long-time Manus user. Zuckerberg himself started from a Harvard dorm, dropping out to build a company, and once inspired a generation of young entrepreneurs across China, the US, and the world to embark on their journeys. The Butterfly Effect team also started from a university club, producing work that amazed even Silicon Valley's giants.

I believe this will be tremendous inspiration for a new generation of young AI-era entrepreneurs. It once again affirms ZhenFund's enduring belief: Young people with dreams, tempered and accumulated through time, will ultimately have the opportunity to achieve the most extraordinary things on the international stage. The era belonging to this generation of young Chinese entrepreneurs has arrived.

ZhenFund made the unprecedented decision to back this young team five consecutive times over ten years, and further supplied the company with several partners and outstanding young employees, among them former ZhenFund staff and interns. To have participated in building such an exhilarating company, and to have witnessed this team's global journey, is our profound honor.

Congratulations to Red, Panpan, Peak, Hidecloud, Huijie, CZ, and the entire Butterfly Effect team. We look forward to Manus ascending to even greater heights and writing an even grander story in the age of artificial intelligence.

Yuan Liu Partner, ZhenFund

The following is from the official Manus blog:

We want to share some news with everyone: Manus is joining Meta.

For us, this is not just news — it is recognition of Manus's work in the field of general AI Agents.

Since launch, Manus has focused on building general-purpose AI Agents that help users efficiently complete research, automation, and complex tasks. Facing growing demand from users worldwide, the team has continuously iterated the product, working to make Manus more practical and reliable in real-world use. According to data compiled in early December, since going live Manus has processed over 147 trillion tokens and created more than 80 million virtual computers.

We deeply believe in the future of AI Agents. This collaboration with Meta will further solidify Manus's strategic position in the AI application layer — translating advanced AI capabilities into scalable, reliable systems that excellently execute end-to-end tasks in real-world scenarios.

Of course, ensuring this change does not affect normal user experience is our top priority — Manus will continue offering products and subscription services through its app and website, and the company will continue operating from Singapore.

To date, Manus has served and created value for millions of users globally. In the time ahead, we hope to bring Manus's services to the millions of businesses and billions of users on Meta's platforms.

Manus CEO Red stated: "Joining hands with Meta allows us to grow on a stronger, more sustainable foundation without changing how Manus operates or makes decisions. We are deeply excited about the prospects of Meta and Manus working together. We will continue iterating the product and delivering service that exceeds user expectations — this has been the fundamental reason Manus has existed and developed since day one."