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Carl Pei, Co-Founder of Nothing Smartphones and Devices.

nothing

Nothing. The hardware startup from OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei has raised $96 million from investors in a new round of financing to fuel its US business expansion and launch of its new smartphone.

The London-based company raised the new cash in an investment round led by European venture capital firm Highland Europe, with existing investors GV, EQT Ventures and C Capital also investing, along with Swedish house music group House Mafia.

And the company announced that Tony Zabala, partner at Highland Europe, led the tour and will join Nothing’s board of directors.

He said nothing that she has now launched over 1.5 million products to date. With another $96 million in the bank, the company plans to expand its operations so it can produce more products and increase sales.

Three products have yet to be launched – the Ear 1, Ear 2 and Ear Stick wireless earbuds, and Nothing Phone, its first smartphone. It plans to launch a new smartphone, Phone 2, on July 11, which will come with a processor from the US chip company Qualcomm.

The money will be used to invest in the company’s expansion into the US market, bringing it into more direct competition with US tech giant Apple. Pei first revealed plans to expand its business in the United States in December 2022, in an exclusive interview with CNBC.

Phone None (1).

nothing

In March, Pai told CNBC that the expansion was already off to a good start. The company has a team working there, and feels “confident” that it will make progress launching its first phone in the US market this year.

“The product is progressing very well,” Pai said at the time, on the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. “The first year, we hardly had any engineers. We had like three engineers. And the factory did all the work. So there were a lot of things we didn’t realize.”

At the same time, none has had to cut costs as much as possible to ensure its survival in the current economic environment.

Pai said the company has been reviewing employee performance and allowing some individual employees to work on a case-by-case basis when they are unhappy with how they are performing against their expectations.

“It’s very difficult,” Pai said at the time. “Hardware is tough. Macro is tough. Our industry is tough.”

“So if there are people out there who just want to be part of a great company and enjoy the perks of a tech company, this isn’t the place. It’s not a place to go if you just want to tell your friends you work at a great company. It really is if you want to build something.” With the rest of us, that’s a really good opportunity.”

It’s been a tough environment for startups to raise capital, with venture capitalists tightening their belts in response to soaring inflation and a worsening outlook from investors when it comes to technology.

This is due to high inflation, high interest rates, and a weak economy, which has led to something of a reset in technical valuations.

Meanwhile, smartphone sales have been under pressure, with global shipments falling 14% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2023, according to Counterpoint Research.

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