March 9, 2022. Nothing just announced a $70 million Series B co-led by EQT Ventures and C Ventures, with participation from GV, Tony Fadell’s Future Shape, Gaorong Capital, and Animoca Brands. Total funding is now $144 million. And in the same announcement, Carl Pei has set a date: March 23, 2022 is “The Truth,” a London event where Nothing will reveal the first Nothing phone.
The financial information first. $144 million in total funding for a company that has shipped exactly one product, a pair of earbuds, is a significant bet. The valuation implied by the Series B has not been disclosed, but EQT and C Ventures’ willingness to lead at this stage suggests they are confident in the phone as a real product rather than a brand play. The Animoca Brands participation is interesting because Animoca is one of the largest investors in Web3 gaming and blockchain infrastructure, a signal that Nothing may be thinking about its product ecosystem in ways that go beyond hardware specifications.
The phone is real
“The Truth” event on March 23 is named with the kind of confidence that makes you either excited or nervous depending on your prior beliefs about the company. Nothing is claiming that the event will reveal its first phone. The company has been consistent since late 2021 that a phone is coming in 2022. The Qualcomm partnership announcement in October 2021 confirmed the chip relationship that a Snapdragon-powered Android device requires. The $70M in new funding confirms the capital. March 23 is fourteen days away.
The questions going into that event: Will the phone ship this year or in 2023? What will it cost? Will the transparent back aesthetic from the ear (1) translate to the larger canvas of a smartphone? Will the software experience be anything other than stock Android with a Nothing skin? And, most importantly for anyone who has been following this company since January 2021, will it actually be the product that justifies the idea that someone could leave OnePlus and build something more interesting?
Fourteen days. Nothing has been building to this since October 2020. The reveal of the actual product is the moment where the brand thesis meets the physical object. That is always the most honest moment for any hardware company. Nothing has done the community work, the investor work, and the supply chain work. March 23 is when we find out if the hardware work is there too.
Part of Nothing Company: The Complete Story, my running diary of Nothing from founding to global expansion.