Smartphone maker Nothing to spin off its affordable CMF brand

{Hardware} startup Nothing mentioned Thursday that it plans to make its reasonably priced machine model, CMF, into an unbiased subsidiary with India serving as its headquarters for manufacturing and R&D.

The corporate first launched CMF in 2023 with a pair of earbuds and a smartwatch. Since then, it has launched smartphones underneath the model as effectively.

Nothing mentioned that it’s partnering with Indian ODM (Unique Design Producer) Optiemus to create a three way partnership for manufacturing. Whereas the startup didn’t reveal the possession construction of this enterprise, it mentioned that it goals to take a position greater than $100 million over the subsequent three years, whereas creating over 1,800 jobs.

The London-based startup, following its $200 million funding round led by Tiger Global, didn’t say how a lot cash from this spherical will go into organising this new enterprise.

Nothing’s resolution to decide on India as CMF’s operational headquarters is sensible for a number of causes. CMF’s smartphones have been priced underneath $200, and that’s the dominant class in India, with over 42% of telephones shipped in Q2 2025 being within the $100-$200 worth vary, according to IDC.

India has additionally been Nothing’s strongest market with over 2% market share in smartphones. IDC informed TechCrunch by way of e-mail that Nothing was the fastest-growing model within the nation in Q2 2025, with 85% progress in shipments 12 months over 12 months.

“India will play a key function in shaping the way forward for the worldwide smartphone business. CMF has been well-received by the market since we launched it two years in the past. With our end-to-end capabilities, we’re uniquely positioned to now construct it into India’s first really international smartphone model. Our three way partnership with Optiemus is a key milestone towards making that imaginative and prescient a actuality,” Nothing’s CEO Carl Pei mentioned in a press release.

The corporate’s transfer comes after it poached Himanshu Tondon from Xiaomi’s spin-off brand POCO final month to be VP of Enterprise for CMF.

Model spin-offs have been more and more widespread within the final decade, particularly for manufacturers primarily based in China. Examples embrace Xiaomi spinning off POCO, Huawei selling off Honor, and Oppo making Realme a separate company.