OnePlus and Carl Pei parted ways in 2020, with the co-founder promising details on a new venture he was working on would be revealed at a later date. As it turns out, it was Nothing to be worried about. Literally Nothing at all. And now that the childish wordplay is out of the way, I can confirm that Carl Pei’s new company is called Nothing.
While there’s no truth to the rumor of Carl Pei sending the Dire Straits video embedded above as his pitch to investors, details on the ‘Nothing’ company remain scarce. In an interview with Wired, Carl Pei confirmed that the new venture would have something to do with audio, and today’s ‘announcement’ revealed that the company would launch its first “smart devices” during the first half of 2021.
The Verge reports that Pei said that Nothing would launch products in multiple categories with the purpose of building its own ecosystem of products, with revenue coming from hardware and not software or subscriptions. A $7 million round in seed financing includes investments from Tony Fadell, Casey Neistat, Kevin Lin, Steve Huffman, and Josh Buckley.
“It’s been a while since anything interesting happened in tech. It is time for a fresh breeze of change,” said Carl Pei, CEO, and founder of Nothing. “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.”
There’s little go on what exactly Nothing will bring to the table, but hopefully, Carl Pei will reveal more substantial news in the coming months.
[Nothing]
