London-based smartphone maker Nothing has set its sights on becoming IPO-ready within three years, banking on India’s now-mature manufacturing and product engine to anchor that push, as it opens a new $5 million community investment round at its $1.3 billion Series C valuation—just months after closing a $200 million Series C, its co-fouders said.
"We're working towards being IPO-ready within three years. The timing will depend on market conditions and what makes sense for the business at that point in time,” Carl Pei, CEO and founder of Nothing, said in a statement to Moneycontrol.
“What’s important is that we're already operating with that discipline now. We're building the systems, the governance, the financial discipline that a public company needs. It forces us to think longer-term and make smarter decisions that prioritise sustainable growth,” he added.
Nothing has raised more than $450 million to date from investors such as Tiger Global, GV, Highland Europe, EQT, and Qualcomm Ventures. It also counts nearly 8,000 community investors, who have contributed $8 million across earlier rounds and hold a rotating community board seat.
Akis Evangelidis, co-founder and President, India at Nothing, told Moneycontrol that India’s operational strength will be central to the company’s evolution into a “truly” global brand.
"India sits at the core of our long-term strategy. It is where a significant part of our manufacturing, product strategy, and go-to-market capability has matured. India is at the forefront of our industry, with end-to-end capabilities being built here, and will play an increasingly prominent role in our journey,” Evangelidis said.
The new $5 million community round—priced at the same per-share value as the September Series C—opens for early access on December 10 via Wefunder (US) and Crowdcube, and for public access on December 11.
The company said the decision to maintain its Series C valuation reflects a deliberate long-term strategy, giving its supporters the chance to “grow with us while shaping the future of AI-native consumer technology.”
Nothing said it set out from inception to build a global smartphone business that owned the consumer-tech distribution point before the AI era arrived.
The company claims a strong foundation, having shipped millions of devices, crossed $1 billion in cumulative revenue, and clocked 150% year-on-year growth in 2024. It claimed to have been the only independent smartphone brand to break through in the last decade at global scale.
“...this round gives our community an opportunity to invest at this stage, and benefit from the value created together along the way. We've built deliberately from the start: first creating a hardware foundation that can ship any device, end-to-end, at global scale, then focusing on the smartphone because we knew owning that distribution point would position us for what's next,” the company said.
With technological developments in AI, consumer devices and software will fundamentally change in the next couple of years.
“This is where we're uniquely positioned to play. Our community helped us get here, and this round lets them participate in where we're going,” Pei said.
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