Carl Pei, co-founder of Nothing.
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Nothing, the hardware start-up of OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei, has raised $96 million from investors in a latest round of funding to drive the expansion of its US operations and the launch of a latest smartphone.
The London-based firm raised fresh money in an investment round led by European enterprise capital firm Highland Europe, which also involved existing investors GV, EQT Ventures and C Capital, in addition to house music supergroup Swedish House Mafia.
Tony Zappala, a partner at Highland Europe, led the round and can join Nothing’s board of directors, the corporate announced.
Nothing says it has launched greater than 1.5 million products to date. With one other $96 million within the bank, the corporate plans to further scale its operations to provide more products and increase sales.
Nothing has released three products to date – the Ear 1, Ear 2 and Ear Stick wireless earbuds, and the Nothing Phone, its first smartphone. It plans to launch a latest smartphone, the Phone 2, on July 11, which is able to feature a processor from the US chip company Qualcomm.
The funds will probably be used to speculate in the corporate’s expansion into the US market, which might put it in additional direct competition with US tech giant Apple. Pei first revealed plans to expand his US operations in December 2022 in an exclusive interview with CNBC.
Telephone Nothing (1).
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Back in March, Pei told CNBC that the expansion was already off to start. The corporate has a working team there and is “confident” that it’ll make progress in bringing its first phone to the US market later this 12 months.
“The product is developing thoroughly,” Pei said on the time on the sidelines of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. “In the primary 12 months, we had almost no engineers. We had three engineers. And the factory did all of the work. So there have been a variety of things we couldn’t do.”
At the identical time, Nothing needed to cut costs where possible to make sure its survival in the present economic environment.
Pei said the corporate looks at worker performance and allows some individual employees to depart on a person basis once they are dissatisfied with how they’re performing in comparison with expectations.
“It is very difficult,” said Pei on the time. “The equipment is difficult. Macro is difficult. Our industry is hard.”
“So if there are individuals who just wish to be a part of a cool company and luxuriate in the advantages of a tech company, this isn’t the correct place. Not the place to return when you just wish to tell your mates you’re employed for a cool company. Really, if you desire to construct something with the remainder of us, it’s a extremely good opportunity.”
It has been a troublesome environment for startups to lift capital as enterprise capitalists tightened their belts in response to rising inflation and sour investor outlook in the case of tech
That is because rising inflation, higher rates of interest, and a weaker economy have led to something like a tech valuation reset.
Meanwhile, smartphone sales have come under pressure, with global shipments down 14% year-on-year in the primary quarter of 2023, in accordance with Counterpoint Research.
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