How do you build a global smartphone brand from scratch in a market ruled by Apple and Samsung?
Once upon a time, after co-founding and scaling OnePlus into a cult brand, Carl Pei walked away to start over. Most people thought he’d lost it. The smartphone market is a graveyard of failed challengers. But in 2020 he launched Nothing, together with his old colleague Akis Evangelidis, who now runs as President of India and co-founder.
The early days were scrappy. A small London HQ. A design crew pulled in from Dyson and teenage engineering. Factories in India and China. Their first product, the transparent ear (1), was more than earbuds. It was a statement: design can still surprise and that a new challenger was in town. This was their ticket to play.
Then came the Phone (1). With its glowing glyphs on the back, a clean Android skin, and bold branding, it instantly stood out in a sea of identical black slabs. Four years later, Nothing has shipped more than 7 million devices, clocked $500 million in sales in 2023 with 150% year-on-year growth, and is on track to hit $1 billion in revenue in 2024.
But the real differentiator isn’t the hardware. It’s how Carl and the team tell their story.
Carl goes on YouTube, not just to market but to spar. He addresses negative reviews directly. He even reviewed the iPhone himself, turning the tables on Big Tech. The brand’s content is witty, transparent, and fun. That’s why younger, design-obsessed buyers feel like they’re part of the movement, not just customers.
Now, Nothing just announced a fresh $200 million Series C at a $1.3 billion valuation. The round brought together Tiger Global, Qualcomm Ventures, Nikhil Kamath, Tony Fadell, Steve Huffman, GV (Google Ventures), Highland Europe and others as believers. The new bigger and bolder goal: build AI-native devices and a future where, in Carl’s words, “a billion people will have a billion different operating systems.”
India has been one of Nothing’s most important markets. E-commerce has been the great distributor. The appetite for bold, design-first products is massive. My wife just bought a Nothing phone, and I get why it clicks. It feels fresh. It feels different.
The bigger question is what this means for India’s own hardware ecosystem. Can founders here take inspiration, be bold, and build for the world in this new AI-native era? We’re already seeing success from Ultrahuman, and big sparks with Deepinder Goyal backing a former team member Surobhi Das with LAT Aerospace and even the team building NeoSapien.
Moral of the story: Specs don’t create cult brands. Stories, communities, and founders who show up with authenticity do. Nothing proves that even in the toughest hardware market, there’s space for a new voice. The challenge for India now is to take that lesson and build hardware startups that go truly global.