Nothing may have little to show for itself besides its ear (1) earbuds, but the company has big plans for the future. Co-founded by the brains behind OnePlus, Carl Pei, we’re expecting Nothing to enter the smartphone market sooner or later. A blurry image, initial rumors, and the fact that the company bought up the remnants of Essential already hint at as much. Now, Nothing has revealed it will hold a March 23 event where it wants to share “further announcements about its 2022 roadmap,” all while locking some $70 million Series B financing.
Nothing drums up its event under the title “Nothing (event): The Truth” — clearly leaning into the same over-the-top styling it introduced with the ear (1) and the marketing fanfare we've come to expect from it. The event will livestream at 9 am ET on March 23. Carl Pei teases quite some highlights for the occasion: “Our first year was a warmup, and we can’t wait to reveal what we’re building at Nothing during the upcoming event.”
The company further says that other than its roadmap announcements, it also wants to share details about a new community investment round. Nothing did something similar before launching its earbuds, asking the community to support it via crowdfunding a few months ahead of revealing the ear (1). If this (short) history is anything to judge by, we might only be in for a proper phone announcement in summer 2022, with the company potentially only teasing its first handset during the March announcement.
As for this Series B financing, we need to go into the business weeds. It’s the first step for Nothing out of the startup world, with investors seeing that it has accomplished some milestones and them thus ready to pump more money into the company to further grow it. In total, Nothing has raised $144 million so far, including $1.5 million collected from its community investment round in February 2021. The company says it has shipped 400,000 ear (1) units, a significant number for what is basically a brand-new company.
If you want to tune into the Nothing event, you can visit nothing.tech for more details.