A clutch of celebrities, including prominent filmmaker and producer Karan Johar, former cricketer Yuvraj Singh, fashion designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee, digital content creator Ranveer Allabadia, and singer Jasleen Royal are among the backers of OnePlus co founder Carl Pei's consumer technology startup "Nothing", the company announced on November 23.
Nothing said these investors had participated in the startup's $50 million Series A extension round which was announced in October 2021. Swedish House Mafia members Axel Christofer Hedfors and Sebastian Ingrosso were among other investors who had participated in the financing round.
At the time, Nothing had said that it plans to use the funds raised for research and development as the company looks to enter new product categories as part of its ecosystem.
"The market is overdue for a new player to bring passion back to the field of consumer tech; one that celebrates artistry and hopes to organise our digital life in one connected space. We are excited that our new strategic and private investors from India feel the same and believe in our vision & mission" said Manu Sharma, VP and General Manager of Nothing India.
Prior to this round, Nothing had raised a total of $22 million from Alphabet's venture capital arm GV and a clutch of angel investors, including Cred founder Kunal Shah, iPod inventor Tony Fadell, Twitch co founder Kevin Lin, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman, PCH founder and CEO Liam Casey, renowned YouTuber Casey Neistat, Product Hunt CEO Josh Buckley, and Web Summit founder Paddy Cosgrave.
It had also secured about $1.5 million through a community funding round from the public earlier this year.
The London-headquartered startup plans to build a suite of smart, connected consumer technology products and had roped in Swedish consumer electronics firm Teenage Engineering as a founding partner of the company in February. Teenage Engineering is famous for developing a range of audio products that have a strong emphasis on design.
Nothing had launched its first product - a pair of wireless earphones called Ear (1) - in August. The firm said it has shipped over 1,00,000 units of earphones between September-October 2021. In June, the startup partnered with Walmart-owned e-commerce marketplace Flipkart for its India foray.
India is one of the few markets where Nothing has local operations, having hired former Samsung executive Manu Sharma as vice-president and general manager of its local unit in February.
In October, Nothing also said that it will be collaborating with Qualcomm Technologies and its Snapdragon platform to power the company's future technology products.
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