What you need to know
- Carl Pei's London-based startup Nothing has raised $15 million in series A funding, with the round led by Alphabet's GV.
- Nothing says it will use the funds to scale operations and invest in R&D.
- Nothing's first product will include wireless headphones that will debut in the summer, with other smart products launching later in the year.
Carl Pei left OnePlus back in October to start his own venture. We got more information on what he's planning a few weeks ago when he announced the name for the startup: it's called Nothing. Today, the startup announced that it is raising $15 million in series A funding, with the round led by GV, Alphabet's venture capital wing.
Nothing says that it will use the funds to "expand its team and operations, further invest in R&D, as well as launch its community and first products in the coming months." According to Bloomberg, Nothing's first product will be wireless headphones — slated to debut in the summer — followed by a "suite of smart, connected" products launching later in the year.
As for launching a community, Pei was integral in setting up OnePlus' global community, so it's no wonder that he's trying to emulate the same at Nothing. From Pei:
We are grateful to have a venture capital firm of this caliber help in building Nothing together with us. We plan to aggressively grow the company, in particular our R&D and design capabilities, to realize our mission of removing barriers between people and technology.
From Tom Hulme, General Partner at GV:
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.
The funding round puts Nothing's total investment to date at $22 million — Pei previously announced that he raised $7 million in seed financing from friends and family, including YouTuber Casey Neistat, Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman, and CRED founder Kunal Shah.
