New tech company Nothing acquires Essential, gives everyone a chance to invest

Nothing, a new company co-founded by OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei, is making its first moves, and it wants you to join the ride. 

On Tuesday, the company announced a crowdfunding campaign which will allow its community to invest a total of $1.5 million at the same valuation that its Series A round investor (namely Google Ventures) has invested at. 

The funding will be conducted through crowdfunding platform CrowdCube. You can register your interest and see all the details over there; pre-registration goes live on Feb. 16 at 5 a.m. ET, and the campaign will go live on March 2 at 5 a.m. ET. 

Nothing (we get the cool name, but it’s going to be a drag writing about this company in a way that makes sense) will also elect a community member to its board of directors. 

“We want our community to be part of our journey from the very start and play an active role in it,” Carl Pei, CEO and co-founder of Nothing, said in a statement. 

The funding news follows 9to5Google‘s report that Nothing has acquired the intellectual property of smartphone brand Essential, including trademarks and logos, though it’s uncertain that the deal also includes patents and products. 

Founded by ex-Googler and Android founder Andy Rubin, Essential was a promising smartphone brand with some innovative products, but it folded after sexual misconduct allegations against Rubin came to light. 

Nothing has been fairly secretive about what it plans to do in the future. Pei, whose OnePlus rose to prominence by selling powerful, affordable phones, told Bloomberg the company’s first product will be wireless earbuds, with more products to follow later this year. The company says its mission is “to remove barriers between people and technology, and create a seamless digital future.”

Besides GV, the company’s investors include Reddit CEO and co-founder Steve Huffman, Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin, and Product Hunt CEO Josh Buckley.