OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei has finally lifted
the curtains on his new venture, unveiling on Wednesday his London-based tech
company called “Nothing”.
Announced as a consumer technology firm, ‘Nothing’ is
slated to launch its first smart devices in the first half of the year, according to media reports.
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Pei made the “difficult decision” of
leaving OnePlus after nearly seven years with the tech giants in October 2020. The
Swedish entrepreneur co-founded the company in 2013, at the age of 24.
Nothing secured a $7 million in seed
financing in December 2020, with a number of bigwigs from the tech industry as its
investors.
iPod investor Tony Fadell, American YouTuber Casey
Neistat, Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman and CRED founder
Kunal Shah are among its high-profile investors.
“It’s been a while since anything
interesting happened in tech. It is time for a fresh breeze of change,” Pei
said at Nothing’s launch event. “It is time for a fresh breeze of change.”
“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,”
he said in a statement.
The company wants people to see the
positive potential of technology, with Neistat saying, consumer technology “is
a tidal wave if limitless potential”.
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“Nothing will be the brand at the forefront
and I can’t wait for the world to experience its products,” he said.
It remains unclear what kind of devices can
be expected from Nothing, although Pei had earlier suggested he wants to focus
on audio devices, stressing they will more than just headphones.
