Smartphone startup Nothing introduced as we speak that it closed its Sequence C spherical of $200 million, which was led by the funding agency Tiger World. With this spherical, the patron electronics firm is now valued at $1.3 billion.
Different traders within the spherical included present backers akin to enterprise outfits GV, Highland Europe, EQT, Latitude, I2BF, and Tapestry. The corporate, based by Carl Pei — who beforehand co-founded Chinese language smartphone maker OnePlus, recognized for high-performance gadgets at aggressive costs — additionally obtained new strategic backing from Nikhil Kamath and Qualcomm Ventures. The brand new funding takes Nothing’s complete funding to over $450 million.
“Carl and the group at Nothing are reimagining {hardware} and software program with an AI overlay to place their merchandise for the following period of private know-how. We’re excited to companion with this distinctive group as they pioneer AI-native experiences,” stated Matt Watcher, a companion at Tiger World, in an announcement to TechCrunch.
The corporate stated it’s going to quickly open up one other neighborhood funding spherical. In earlier neighborhood rounds the corporate raised $11.5 million in complete.
The corporate has wager on design differentiation thus far, and it has served the startup nicely. Nothing says it clocked in over $1 billion in complete gross sales earlier this yr. An early investor within the startup instructed TechCrunch that they’re pleased with the corporate’s development trajectory and street to profitability.
The startup stated that up so far, it has hung out constructing a provide chain and infrastructure to launch a product inside months and ship it worldwide. Notably, its lately launched Telephone (3) — which showcases the corporate’s signature clear design aesthetic and distinctive person interface — was solely its second handset to obtain normal distribution within the U.S.
Nothing has lower than 1% market share globally, however in India, its largest market, it has managed to seize 2% share, based on analytics agency IDC. The corporate has shipped 5.1 million items up to now, with the corporate transport over 1,000,000 items simply in Q2 2025. IDC stated its international growth has been gradual as 80% of its items are nonetheless offered in Asia.
Techcrunch occasion
San Francisco
|
October 27-29, 2025
Pei has stated that he desires to focus on his model in the direction of the following era of customers who may search options past incumbents.
“The way in which we’ve differentiated our model and differentiated our merchandise is absolutely resonating with our group of customers. We’re focusing on the following era. They’re focused on tech. They’re focused on creativity and design, and we actually discovered resonance amongst that client group,” he instructed TechCrunch throughout the Telephone (3)’s launch in July.
Highland Europe companion Tony Zappalà, who’s an present investor within the firm, stated that the corporate has delivered on its guarantees and has room to develop on this large trade. He stated that Nothing is now a acknowledged identify within the trade, which has its personal benefits when it comes to attracting expertise and constructing provide chain relationships.
Ai imaginative and prescient
The corporate desires to construct an working system with AI and personalization options which may prolong past smartphones. Presently, now we have solely seen a number of glimpses of AI within the working system with options like Important Search, a sensible search perform that helps customers discover data throughout their machine. The startup has employed Sélim Benayat, a former govt from Linktree and founding father of Bento (a platform that creates customized touchdown pages for social media profiles), to guide its AI providers efforts.
Zappalà stated that the problem in constructing such an working system is each a buyer expertise and a belief challenge.
“I feel the problem of constructing an efficient AI-first expertise isn’t distinctive to Nothing. That is greater than a technical problem; AI options want to succeed in a stage the place customers aren’t double-checking the output,” he stated.
Corporations like Apple have struggled to combine AI options successfully into their working programs. For Nothing, the issue is discovering the suitable steadiness between newness and helpfulness whereas executing AI options.
Pei believes that smartphones stay the easiest way to ship AI, and they are going to be “the dominant kind issue for all client AI functions” for at the very least three to 5 years, he stated throughout the dialog with TechCrunch in July.
With this fundraising announcement, the corporate stated it plans to launch an AI-first machine subsequent yr. Nevertheless, there haven’t been many success tales within the AI {hardware} house. AI {hardware} startup Humane was offered to HP after battling its AI Pin machine, and AI assistant firm Rabbit has has been working to enhance its R1 machine, releasing a brand new software program replace lately after the corporate wasn’t happy with the primary iteration.
