On EQT Ventures’ investment in… Nothing.
$70m Series B co-led by EQT Ventures and C Ventures in Nothing, bringing artistry and passion back to consumer electronics.
Today, Nothing announced its $70m Series B, led by EQT Ventures and C Ventures with participation from GV, Tony Fadell’s Future Shape, Gaorong Capital and Animoca Brands. The funding will be used to create new product categories in partnership with Qualcomm Technologies and grow operations at its new London Design Hub.
On a mission to bring artistry and passion back to consumer electronics
It’s hard to imagine personal computing is only about 50 years old. IBM brought the first mass-market computer to the consumer in the early 70’s. They were novel, futuristic and rare to own. Then came along a challenger from a garage in Los Altos, which would go on to disrupt how humans interacted with technology. The year was 1977, the company was called Apple and their product was called Apple II. In 1984 they did it again with the Mac, and the iPhone in 2007. But the wow moments in consumer technology are getting more and more sparse. Consumer electronics has felt stagnant for years.
Like fashion, technology works in cycles
Nothing is on a mission to combine innovative design with carbon-neutrality and a forward-thinking approach to re-imagine how we can best use and interact with our tech.
After having peeked a bit into their product roadmap, we believe this could be a start of a new cycle, that will bring artistry and passion back to the industry.
Nothing is buiding iconic products, with seamless and intuitive connectivity with the rest of your technology. What are these iconic products? Stay tuned.
The future, as Carl Pei put it — “I kind of envision a grass field with people having a picnic and there’s no screen, there’s no laptop screen, there’s no phone screen, there’s no smartwatch screen, there’s no billboard screen. That’s kind of the end state.”
Bringing design into the equation
In addition to hiring ex-Dyson Head of Design & Product Experience Adam Bates to lead their London Design Hub, Nothing works with Swedish design & audio studio Teenage Engineering, founded in 2005 by Jesper Kouthoofd, David Eriksson, Jens Rudberg and David Möllerstedt. They bring decades of expertise with their off-beat and beautifully designed line products from synthesizers to cameras. Together, they have created a strong pipeline of products to engineer the Nothing ecosystem.
The first product Nothing launched was the $99 ear (1), a carbon-neutral transparent true wireless earbuds, shipping over 400,000 units. The market resonates to the fact that good design is no longer a luxury for the flagships which cost hundreds of dollars but a fundamental requirement for consumer technology.
We’re delighted to be backing Carl, Paul, Levi, Steven, Shawn, Jesper, Tom, David, Akis and the rest of the Nothing team.
If you want to learn more about Nothing, tune into the Nothing event on 23 March 2022 at 14:00 GMT or join the Discord server here.
Shoutouts to Sai, who helped with this article.
