A roughly $1 billion raise from outside investors is among the options being weighed by Manus co-founders Xiao Hong, Ji Yichao, and Zhang Tao as they work to comply with Beijing’s order to undo Meta’s acquisition of the startup, according to Bloomberg.
Any gap in the financing could be filled with personal funds from the founders themselves, Bloomberg said
The target valuation for the round would be set at or above the price Meta paid — more than $2 billion — according to Reuters. A successful buyback could eventually lead to a Hong Kong IPO, with Manus reorganized as a Chinese joint venture alongside whatever investors come aboard, added Bloomberg. The plans remain early-stage.
According to Bloomberg’s unnamed sources, no firm decisions have been made and the valuation question has yet to be settled — leaving open the possibility that the founders walk away entirely. Compounding the difficulty is the question of what a new owner would actually receive: Manus’s technology has been woven into Meta’s infrastructure, and no clear path exists for separating it. The projected revenue figure — roughly $1 billion for the current year — has been enough to attract interest from at least some potential backers.