OnePlus co-founder’s Nothing raises $15 mn in Alphabet-led funding

LONDON: Newly-formed consumer technology company Nothing, a brainchild of OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei, on Tuesday announced it has raised $15 million in a Series A round led by GV (formerly Google Ventures), a venture capital investment arm of Alphabet which is the parent company of Google.

With new funds, the company aims to expand its operations in Europe with headquarters in London and release its first smart devices in the coming months, it said in a statement.

“We are grateful to have a venture capital firm of this calibre help in building Nothing together with us,” said Pei, CEO and co-founder of Nothing.

“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,”

Pei said.

London-based Nothing has so far raised over $22 million. In December, the company raised $7 million in seed financing in December that included tech leaders and investors such as Tony Fadell, Casey Neistat, Kevin Lin, Steve Huffman and Josh Buckley.

Kunal Shah, Founder, CRED, also invested in Nothing, although the amount has not been disclosed yet.

“Carl Pei is a seasoned entrepreneur with marketing, hardware, and distribution experience that is key to bringing new devices to market,” said Tom Hulme, General Partner at GV.

“His vision for smart devices is compelling, and we have high confidence that with Pei’s global mindset, the Nothing team will have a meaningful impact on the market for consumer technology.”