Nothing announces Teenage Engineering as founding partner

New Delhi, Feb 24 (IANS) Nothing Technologies, the newly-launched venture of OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei, on Wednesday announced Stockholm-based company Teenage Engineering as its founding partner.Teenage Engineering has been developing highly acclaimed products for people who love sound, music, and design. The company’s emblematic first product, the portable wonder synthesizer OP-1, was launched in 2010.”I am really excited to welcome Teenage Engineering to the growing Nothing family. They consist of some of the best designers and creatives that I’ve had the pleasure of working with. Together, we have created a product roadmap that’s unique and true to Nothing’s vision,” Carl Pei, CEO and co-founder of Nothing said in a statement.Jesper Kouthoofd, co-founder and CEO of Teenage Engineering is the Creative Lead and the visionary behind Nothing’s design world, while Tom Howard has been appointed as Head of Design of Nothing.Nothing also announced that it will open up for its community to invest in the company through a community equity funding round.Nothing will allow its community to invest a total of $1.5 million at the same valuation as their Series A funding with GV (formerly Google Ventures).Earlier, the firm acquired smartphone brand Essential that shut shop last year.According to a report in 9to5Google, the Essential brand which was launched by Android co-founder Andy Rubin but did not succeed and the company was closed last year, is now officially owned by Pei’s Nothing Technologies.London-based Nothing has so far raised over $22 million. In December, the company raised $7 million in seed financing December that included tech leaders and investors such as Tony Fadell, Casey Neistat, Kevin Lin, Steve Huffman and Josh Buckley.–IANSwh/kr