British startup Nothing has secured $200 million (£148 million, converted) in a fresh funding round, pushing its valuation over $1.3 billion — almost £1bn — for the first time.

The upstart, which is headquartered in London, launched in October 2020 and has launched a string of award-winning smartphones, wireless earbuds, and wearables.

Nothing, launched in the UK five years ago, designs its award-winning products in London

The British success story says it plans to use the money to create groundbreaking AI-powered devices that could hit the market as early as next year. Nothing founder Carl Pei set out an ambitious vision for new operating systems that will be "significantly different" from what we use today.

He believes future AI-powered systems will be "hyper-personalised" and adapt to each individual, rather than offering the same one-size-fits-all experience.

These new AI-fuelled operating systems will power a new range of devices, including smart glasses, electric vehicles, and humanoid robots, the chief executive has stated.

Nothing Phone (3) is the first genuine flagship phone launched by the British start-up. It arrives equipped with better components, new AI features, and a higher price tag

Since its launch five years ago, Nothing has sold millions of devices and crossed over $1 billion (£742m) in total sales earlier this year, with its business growing by 150% last year alone. Its most recent product launches include , designed to fight what it describes as the "sea of sameness" from other brands, the , and its latest Bluetooth earbuds, .

Nothing founder Carl Pei speaks to TechCrunch Hardware Editor Brian Heater during TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco

Carl Pei, who co-founded OnePlus, is bullish about the future of his latest venture.

Discussing the landmark valuation for Nothing, he wrote: "Building this infrastructure has been the hardest and most valuable thing we’ve done so far. With the support of our community, we’re fortunate to have made it here.

"Today, we’re in a position that will be very hard to copy: The ability to launch any consumer hardware product from start to finish within months, go-to-market operations that can ship and service worldwide, a global user community that co-creates with us, all without the innovator’s dilemma or bureaucratic constraints that the incumbents face."

Nothing Ear (3) are the next-generation Bluetooth earbuds from the British technology brand. Packed with the latest Bluetooth 5.4 standard for fast-pairing on Android and Windows, low-latency for gaming on-the-go, and up to 10 hours of audio playback from each 'bud on a single charge... these's plenty of upgrades packed into these clever earbuds

With sales of its devices on the rise, a shelf heaving with Red Dot design awards and other industry accolades, the UK upstart isn't dragging its feet. Nothing founder Carl Pei believes the first of these new AI-focused gadgets will be available to buy within the next 12 months or so.

The 36-year-old executive added: "In the near-term, we believe that the smartphone will remain the only device shipping at billion-unit scale each year.

"But soon, we’ll all be carrying an additional device that will be just as important. In the coming years, we’ll learn that the more context we can feed our AI, the more useful it becomes.

"The smartphone, while powerful, can’t always be there for us. Sometimes it’s in our pocket, or we might be on the move with our hands full. A new class of AI-native devices will emerge.

"Products that are available to the user at the moment of need, paired with intelligence that turns understanding into action. This is a very exciting time, imagining devices that capture context across modalities and generate interfaces on demand, shaped by what the user is trying to accomplish.

"We have been hard at work imagining what this future could look like, and can’t wait to launch some of our first AI-native devices next year."