Carl Pei just launched ‘Nothing’

Months after his exit from OnePlus, Carl Pei unveiled on Wednesday the name of his new venture Nothing, a brand focusing on consumer tech that will be based in London.
“Nothing’s mission is to remove barriers between people and technology to create a seamless digital future. We believe that the best technology is beautiful, yet natural and intuitive to use. When sufficiently advanced, it should fade into the background and feel like nothing” Pei said in a statement

Last month, Pei’s new venture received $7 million in seed funding from a clutch of prominent investors including iPod inventor Tony Fadell, Twitch cofounder Kevin Lin, Reddit chief executive Steve Huffman, PCH founder and chief executive Liam Casey, prominent YouTuber Casey Neistat, Product Hunt chief executive Josh Buckley, and Web Summit founder Paddy Cosgrave. Cred founder Kunal Shah also backed the firm last week.

A giant reset button 🔲 => https://t.co/0i3OgJxKXJ pic.twitter.com/MuvsmDuFVg

— Carl Pei (@getpeid) January 27, 2021

The seed investment was aimed at supporting the creation of a head office in London; hiring the team, and financing ongoing product research and development efforts for Nothing.

In an interview with The Verge, Pei reportedly said the company intends to launch “smart devices” at some point during the first half of this year, indicating that whatever Nothing does will be hardware focused
Nothing plans to profit from selling hardware instead of software subscriptions, according to Pei. However, in the long-run a “healthy business” requires both good hardware and software, he told The Verge.

To stand out in the market, Nothing will use “custom made” components in its products, Pei said. Nothing might focus on music and include manufacturing headphones, Wired reported in December