Topics Latest AI Amazon Apps Biotech & Health Climate Cloud Computing Commerce Crypto Enterprise EVs Fintech Fundraising Gadgets Gaming Google Government & Policy Hardware Instagram Layoffs Media & Entertainment Meta Microsoft Privacy Robotics Security Social Space Startups TikTok Transportation Venture Latest AI Amazon Apps Biotech & Health Climate Cloud Computing Commerce Crypto Enterprise EVs Fintech Fundraising Gadgets Gaming Google Government & Policy Hardware Instagram Layoffs Media & Entertainment Meta Microsoft Privacy Robotics Security Social Space Startups TikTok Transportation Venture More from TechCrunch Staff Events Startup Battlefield StrictlyVC Newsletters Podcasts Videos Partner Content TechCrunch Brand Studio Crunchboard Contact Us Nothing, the hardware company backed by Tiger Global, is opening its first retail store in India, its biggest market.The store is located in Bengaluru, where the company says a large chunk of its user base is concentrated.The new, two-story location will showcase Nothing’s products and other projects.
Customers will also be able to buy hardware products and other merchandise from the store and have select items customized.“We wanted to create a fun space,” the company’s co-founder and CEO Carl Pei said.“It’s kind of inspired by all the parts that are related to the brand.
For instance, the factory: if you buy a product, there’s like a production line where the product comes out.We also show machines where phones go through testing, like USB port testing or water resistance testing.So we just wanted to bring that world together.” The store will feature products from both Nothing and CMF, its budget brand, which it spun off last year.
Notably, CMF is headquartered in India and has a joint venture with local Indian ODM (original design manufacturer), Optiemus.Pei mentioned that both brands are differentiated in terms of the products they offer, which fall into different price ranges, as well as the audiences they target.“Nothing is more niche with a higher price.
CMF is more [targeted toward] mass [market].You know it’s mass, but it’s not just off-the-shelf rebrand products that usually [appear] in this price point.They are also products that we put a lot of care into,” he said.
India has been Nothing’s strongest market, with over 2% of the smartphone market share, the research firm IDC told TechCrunch last year.It also noted that Nothing was the fastest-growing brand in the country in Q2 2025, with 85% growth in shipments year-over-year.Other hardware makers are building aspirational retail stores in India, too.
For instance, Apple is set to open its sixth store in the country this month, situated in Borivali, a suburb of Mumbai.This is the first Nothing store outside of London, where the company is headquartered.The startup said that it plans to open two more stores in Tokyo and New York, but didn’t provide timelines for the openings.
The company raised $200 million in Series C funding at a $1.3 billion valuation last year, led by Tiger Global, along with investors like GV, Highland Europe, EQT, Latitude, I2BF, and Tapestry.Nothing has raised $450 million to date.Topics Carl Pei, Gadgets, Hardware, hardware, India, nothing Ivan Mehta Ivan covers global consumer tech developments at TechCrunch.
He is based out of India and has previously worked at publications including Huffington Post and The Next Web. You can contact or verify outreach from Ivan by emailing [email protected] or via encrypted message at ivan.42 on Signal.View Bio X LinkedIn Facebook Instagram youTube Mastodon Threads Bluesky TechCrunchStaffContact UsAdvertiseCrunchboard JobsSite Map Terms of ServicePrivacy PolicyRSS Terms of UseCode of Conduct EpsteinKindle ScribeRedditTikTokGPT-4oTech LayoffsChatGPT TechCrunchStaffContact UsAdvertiseCrunchboard JobsSite MapTerms of ServicePrivacy PolicyRSS Terms of UseCode of ConductEpsteinKindle ScribeRedditTikTokGPT-4oTech LayoffsChatGPT
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