Carl Pei confirms TWS earbuds as the first product from Nothing

Carl Pei finally introduced his second start-up since leaving OnePlus as Nothing Technologies in January 2021. As the new firm had no products to even tease alongside it, that name seemed appropriate enough. Now, however, the executive has revealed plans for not just one product, but a whole ecosystem of them.

Pei also specified that Nothing's first product is likely to be a pair of TWS earbuds, thereby confirming earlier rumors that his new brand would do something audio-related. However, speaking in an interview with Bloomberg, he also emphasized that it intends to branch into many other categories over time.

The rapidly-expanding TWS market may indeed have space for new Nothing entries; then again, they may have a hard time competing with the market leader Apple. Pei apparenly plans to imbue his potential AirPod rivals with Nothing's advertised focus on innovative, ground-up-designed devices that offer a "seamless" digital experience.

This approach, however, vague, has won Pei and Nothing a US$7 million round of investment from various private entities. It has subsequently held another round of Series A funding, which has been snapped up in its entirely by GV (Alphabet's venture-capital arm) to the tune of $15 million.

This decision, according to GV's General Partner Tom Hulme, is due to the "vision for smart devices" presented by Pei in conjunction with Nothing, which, apparently, is "compelling".

The OnePlus Buds are now on Amazon