Image credits: Nothing
Nothing, a London-based technology company founded by OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei, confirmed its plans to launch its first smartphone – phone (1). The announcement comes a few days after raising $70M (€63.4M) in a Series B round of funding co-led by EQT Ventures and C Ventures.
phone (1): What you need to know
Nothing’s first smartphone will sport the Qualcomm Snapdragon mobile platform, but there hasn’t been any information on the exact SoC yet. phone (1) is the second device in the Nothing’s product ecosystem built for seamless connectivity.
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CEO and founder Carl Pei revealed that the phone (1) is scheduled for a summer launch and will come with NothingOS.
“Nothing OS is built on an open and seamless ecosystem that will effortlessly connect and integrate Nothing products and products from other world-leading brands,” says the company.
Pei says that Nothing OS has been designed to deliver a fast, smooth, and personal experience, which reminds us of the initial stages of OnePlus’ OxygenOS.
Known for his attention to detail, Pei said that the OS will have a coherent interface, seamless hardware, and software integration, bespoke fonts, colours, graphical elements, and sounds.
“Nothing OS captures the best features of pure Android, distilling the operating system to just the essentials, where every byte has a purpose,” says the company.
The first preview of Nothing OS will be available via its launcher, which will be available to download on select smartphone models from April.
A few days back, renowned tipster Evan Blass shared a picture where Pei showed the phone’s prototype to Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon.
As you can see from the image (if you zoom in), the rear panel of the phone appears black, while earlier reports suggested that the Nothing phone would have transparent elements similar to its TWS ear (1).
Community investment round
Nothing has also announced a $10M (approx €9.1M) allocation for an upcoming equity-based community investment round at the same valuation as its Series B fundraise.
This follows Nothing’s first community round, which raised $1.5M in a record-beating 54 seconds last March.
Investors have access to Nothing’s private community through which they will get exclusive benefits and insights into the company.
Pre-registrations for early access are now open, and the investment round will go live on the 5th of April.
“Having raised $144M, built a team of over 300 people, and secured support from trusted partners like Qualcomm Technologies, Inc, we are ready for phone (1) to mark the start of change for the sleepy smartphone market,” says Pei.
“We are also doing a new $10M round of community investment so that our supporters get the chance to be part of our journey going head to head against the giants of the industry,” he adds.
Nothing: What you need to know
Founded by Carl Pei, Nothing is a consumer tech company that aims to build a world without barriers between people and technology.
Nothing made its debut into the tech world with its first TWS ear (1). The company claims it has shipped over 40,000 units to date.
The London-based tech company has raised around $144M (approx €130M) to date, including $1.5M (€1.35M) from its first community investment round.
Nothing is a privately held company with backing from GV (formerly Google Ventures), EQT Ventures, C Ventures, and other private investors, including Tony Fadell (Principal at Future Shape & inventor of the iPod), Casey Neistat (YouTube personality and Co-founder of Beme), Kevin Lin (Co-founder of Twitch), and Steve Huffman (Co-founder and CEO of Reddit).
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