Smartphone startup Nothing introduced right this moment that it closed its Sequence C spherical of $200 million, which was led by the funding agency Tiger International. 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, identified 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 whole funding to over $450 million.
“Carl and the staff at Nothing are reimagining {hardware} and software program with an AI overlay to place their merchandise for the subsequent period of non-public know-how. We’re excited to accomplice with this distinctive staff as they pioneer AI-native experiences,” mentioned Matt Watcher, a accomplice at Tiger International, in a press release to TechCrunch.
The corporate mentioned it is going to quickly open up one other group funding spherical. In earlier group rounds the corporate raised $11.5 million in whole.
The corporate has wager on design differentiation to date, and it has served the startup nicely. Nothing says it clocked in over $1 billion in whole gross sales earlier this yr. An early investor within the startup informed TechCrunch that they’re proud of the corporate’s progress trajectory and street to profitability.
The startup mentioned that up so far, it has frolicked constructing a provide chain and infrastructure to launch a product inside months and ship it worldwide. Notably, its not too long ago launched Cellphone (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 Cellphone 3 Picture Credit: Ivan MehtaImage Credit:Ivan Mehta
Nothing has lower than 1% market share globally, however in India, its largest market, it has managed to seize 2% share, in accordance with analytics agency IDC. The corporate has shipped 5.1 million models thus far, with the corporate delivery over 1,000,000 models simply in Q2 2025. IDC mentioned its international enlargement has been gradual as 80% of its models are nonetheless offered in Asia.
Techcrunch occasion
San Francisco
|
October 27-29, 2025
Pei has mentioned that he needs to focus on his model in the direction of the subsequent technology of customers who would possibly search options past incumbents.
“The way in which we’ve differentiated our model and differentiated our merchandise is de facto resonating with our group of customers. We’re focusing on the subsequent technology. They’re concerned about tech. They’re concerned about creativity and design, and we actually discovered resonance amongst that shopper group,” he informed TechCrunch through the Cellphone (3)’s launch in July.
Highland Europe accomplice Tony Zappalà, who’s an present investor within the firm, mentioned that the corporate has delivered on its guarantees and has room to develop on this large business. He mentioned that Nothing is now a acknowledged identify within the business, which has its personal benefits when it comes to attracting expertise and constructing provide chain relationships.
Ai imaginative and prescient
The corporate needs to construct an working system with AI and personalization options that may lengthen past smartphones. At present, we have now solely seen a couple of glimpses of AI within the working system with options like Important Search, a sensible search operate that helps customers discover data throughout their machine. The startup has employed Sélim Benayat, a former government from Linktree and founding father of Bento (a platform that creates customized touchdown pages for social media profiles), to steer its AI companies efforts.
Zappalà mentioned that the problem in constructing such an working system is each a buyer expertise and a belief challenge.
“I believe the problem of constructing an efficient AI-first expertise is just not distinctive to Nothing. That is greater than a technical problem; AI options want to succeed in a stage the place customers usually are not double-checking the output,” he mentioned.
Firms like Apple have struggled to combine AI options successfully into their working methods. For Nothing, the problem is discovering the suitable stability between newness and helpfulness whereas executing AI options.
Pei believes that smartphones stay one of the best ways to ship AI, and they are going to be “the dominant type issue for all shopper AI functions” for at the very least three to 5 years, he mentioned through the dialog with TechCrunch in July.
With this fundraising announcement, the corporate mentioned 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 fighting its AI Pin machine, and AI assistant firm Rabbit has has been working to enhance its R1 machine, releasing a new software program replace not too long ago after the corporate wasn’t glad with the primary iteration.
