OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei raises $7M for new venture

New Delhi: OnePlus Co-founder Carl Pei, who left the company a couple of months ago, on Wednesday said he has completed a $7 million (approximately Rs 52 crore) round in seed financing from high-profile investors to start a new venture that will be unveiled early next year.

The seed investment financing came from friends and private investors, including Tony Fadell (Principal at Future Shape & Inventor of the iPod), Casey Neistat (YouTuber), Kevin Lin (Cofounder of Twitch), Steve Huffman (CEO of Reddit), Liam Casey (Founder and CEO, PCH), Paddy Cosgrave (Founder of Web Summit) and Josh Buckley (CEO of Product Hunt).

"I am deeply grateful and tremendously excited to have friends of this caliber supporting us in building what's next," Pei said in a statement.

"We plan on moving aggressively against our vision, and can't wait to see how the market will react."

This seed investment will support the creation of a head office in London, hiring of the team, and finance ongoing product research and development efforts.

The Swedish tech entrepreneur co-founded OnePlus in 2013 at the age of 24. After nearly seven years, he made the "difficult decision" of leaving the company in October.

"Carl spent the last decade making products that millions of people love. He deeply understands what consumers want, and I can't wait for the world to see what he has in store next," said Josh Buckley, CEO of Product Hunt.