Nothing closes $200M Series C led by Tiger Global, plans AI-first device launch

Smartphone startup Nothing introduced in the present day that it closed its Sequence C spherical of $200 million, which was led by the funding agency Tiger World. With this spherical, the buyer electronics firm is now valued at $1.3 billion.

Different buyers within the spherical included present backers similar 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, recognized for high-performance units at aggressive costs — additionally obtained new strategic backing from Nikhil Kamath and Qualcomm Ventures. The brand new funding takes Nothing’s total 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 associate with this distinctive staff as they pioneer AI-native experiences,” stated Matt Watcher, a associate at Tiger World, in a press release to TechCrunch.

The corporate stated it’ll quickly open up one other group funding spherical. In earlier group rounds the corporate raised $11.5 million in whole.

The corporate has guess on design differentiation to date, and it has served the startup effectively. Nothing says it clocked in over $1 billion in whole gross sales earlier this 12 months. An early investor within the startup advised TechCrunch that they’re pleased with the corporate’s development trajectory and street to profitability.

The startup stated that up up to now, it has frolicked constructing a provide chain and infrastructure to launch a product inside months and ship it worldwide. Notably, its just lately launched Cellphone (3) — which showcases the corporate’s signature clear design aesthetic and distinctive person interface — was solely its second handset to obtain general distribution in the U.S.

Nothing has lower than 1% market share globally, however in India, its greatest market, it has managed to seize 2% share, in response to analytics agency IDC. The corporate has shipped 5.1 million items so far, with the corporate delivery over 1,000,000 items simply in Q2 2025. IDC stated its world growth has been sluggish as 80% of its items are nonetheless bought in Asia.

Pei has stated that he needs to focus on his model in the direction of the subsequent technology of customers who may search options past incumbents.

“The best way we’ve differentiated our model and differentiated our merchandise is admittedly resonating with our group of shoppers. We’re concentrating on the subsequent technology. They’re curious about tech. They’re curious about creativity and design, and we actually discovered resonance amongst that client group,” he advised TechCrunch through the Phone (3)’s launch in July.

Highland Europe associate Tony Zappalà, who’s an present investor within the firm, stated that the corporate has delivered on its guarantees and has room to develop on this enormous business. He stated that Nothing is now a acknowledged title within the business, which has its personal benefits by way of attracting expertise and constructing provide chain relationships.

AI imaginative and prescient

The corporate needs to construct an working system with AI and personalization options which may prolong past smartphones. Presently, we have now solely seen a couple of glimpses of AI within the working system with features like Essential Search, a sensible search perform that helps customers discover data throughout their machine. The startup has employed Sélim Benayat, a former govt from Linktree and founding father of Bento (a platform that creates personalised touchdown pages for social media profiles), to guide its AI companies efforts.

Zappalà stated 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 isn’t distinctive to Nothing. That is greater than a technical problem; AI options want to succeed in a stage the place customers should not double-checking the output,” he stated.

Corporations like Apple have struggled to integrate AI features effectively into their working techniques. For Nothing, the issue is discovering the proper steadiness between newness and helpfulness whereas executing AI options.

Pei believes that smartphones stay the easiest way to ship AI, and they are going to be “the dominant type issue for all client AI purposes” for at the very least three to 5 years, he stated through the dialog with TechCrunch in July.

With this fundraising announcement, the corporate stated it plans to launch an AI-first machine subsequent 12 months. Nevertheless, there haven’t been many success tales within the AI {hardware} area. AI {hardware} startup Humane was sold to HP after scuffling with its AI Pin machine, and AI assistant firm Rabbit has has been working to enhance its R1 machine, releasing a new software update just lately after the corporate wasn’t glad with the primary iteration.