Image Credit: Nothing

Carl Pei has announced his new venture ‘Nothing’ will start with a pair of wireless earbuds, before releasing multiple connected hardware products.

Co-founding OnePlus in 2013, Carl Pei left the mobile phone manufacturer in September 2020 to start his new venture. On January 27 2021, Pei announced his new technology hardware venture on Twitter, ‘Nothing‘ with the tag line “Technology should fade into the background and feel like nothing”. Nothing was described as a “London based consumer technology company”.

Since launching, Nothing has received investments from various CEOs and personalities, announcing today, the company has raised $15 million in Series A funding lead by Alphabet’s venture capital unit, GV (formerly Google Ventures).

In an interview with Bloomberg, Pei announced Nothing’s plans for wireless earbuds to be released this summer, followed by other products later in the year. Their move into the consumer audio world brings the company into direct competition with the likes of Apple, Samsung, Sony and even OnePlus, who announced their own pair of AirPods competitors back in July.

We’re building an ecosystem of smart devices. 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.

Carl Pei, Founder, Nothing to Bloomberg