Back in December 2020, OnePlus’s co-founder Carl Pei, who had left the company to pursue a new venture – had announced that he has secured funding from high-profile players for his new audio-centric venture. Carl’s new venture is named “Nothing” – yes Nothing! And, it has now announced its Series A round of funding.
He says “it is a new forward-thinking consumer technology company.” The company is on a mission to remove barriers between people and technology and create a seamless digital future.
Raises Series A funding
The London-based startup has announced that it has raised $15M (approx €12.3M) in its Series A round of funding led by GV – formerly Google Ventures. Besides, other investors also participated in this round including Casey Neistat (YouTube personality and co-founder of Beme), Kevin Lin (co-founder of Twitch), and Steve Huffman (co-founder and CEO of Reddit).
Tom Hulme, General Partner at GV says, “Carl Pei is a seasoned entrepreneur with marketing, hardware, and distribution experience that is key to bringing new devices to market. His vision for smart devices is compelling, and we have high confidence that with Carl’s global mindset, the “Nothing” team will have a meaningful impact on the market for consumer technology.”
With this funding round, the total amount of financing raised by “Nothing” is about $22M (approx €18.1M), to date.
Use of the funds
The raised capital will be used by the company to expand its team and operations, further investment in Research & Development, as well as in the launch of its community and first products in the coming months.
“We are grateful to have a venture capital firm of this calibre help in building “Nothing” together with us. We plan to aggressively grow the company, in particular, our R&D and design capabilities, to realise our mission of removing barriers between people and technology.”
About “Nothing”
Nothing is dedicated to removing the barriers between people and technology to create a seamless digital future, claims the company. It wants to inspire people to believe in the positive potential of technology again. “Starting 2021, Nothing will begin bringing back artistry, passion and trust to the field of consumer technology,” mentions the company in its press release.
“Nothing” also plans to open up for its community and the general public to invest as part of its Series A round.
Pei, in an interview with Bloomberg, mentioned that the company is working on developing a pair of wireless earbuds as well as a suite of smart, connected consumer electronics. These headphones are expected to be released in the summer with other products following later in the year.
“We’re building an ecosystem of smart devices,” Pei said in an interview Friday. “We’ll start with simpler products, wireless earbuds. We’re going to have multiple products throughout the year, not just audio products, and eventually, we want to build it so these devices talk to each other,” Pei mentioned in the interview.
Previous funding
The company secured $7M (approx €5.7M) from high-profile players. The list of investors includes some prominent names such as Tony Fadell (Principal at Future Shape and inventor of the iPod), Casey Neistat (YouTuber), Kevin Lin (co-founder of Twitch), Steve Huffman (Chief executive of Reddit), Liam Casey (founder and chief executive of PCH), Paddy Cosgrave (founder of Web Summit), and Josh Buckley (Chief executive of Product Hunt).
After leaving OnePlus, Pie had told Wired, “It was like a birthday present to myself. I wanted to explore something new. I still feel like I have a lot of creativity within me, but I still love tech and I have some new ideas I wanted to try out. So I decided to make my birthday my last day. OnePlus is a really large company, compared to where we were when we were just started. And once the company is larger, you’re kind of set in your strategy. So, by turning a blank page, I can be a lot more creative with what I choose to spend my time on.”
01
From telecom veteran to Dutch Startup Visa success: The Jignesh Dave story