INDEX / DIRECTORY / NOTHING TECHNOLOGY

Nothing Technology

Consumer Electronics 74 CITED SOURCES UPDATED 2026-07-16
BDS-1000 Score 71 /1000 E Tier E - Limited
Military ↗ 0.00 Digital ↗ 0.00 Economic ↗ 1.14 Political ↗ 0.00

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Nothing Technology - BDS-1000 Dossier

Key Findings

  • Economic: Nothing’s only Israel-market presence runs through Bug MultiSystem Ltd., an independently owned Israeli retail chain (part of the Modan Group publishing conglomerate) that serves as the confirmed importer of record for Nothing’s Phone (2a), (3a) and (3) launches, with no equity, subsidiary, or ownership link back to Nothing.123
  • Economic: Qualcomm Ventures - whose managing director Boaz Peer has a former IDF and Rafael background - joined as a strategic investor in Nothing’s September 2025 $200 million Series C round, but Peer holds no board, observer, or advisory position at Nothing.45
  • Political: Nothing and CEO Carl Pei have issued no public statement on Israel-Palestine (or on any comparable geopolitical crisis), do not appear in the OHCHR’s September 2025 settlement-business database update or UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese’s July 2025 report, and are listed by an independent consumer boycott tracker as “Not associated with israel.”678
  • Not found: No defence contract, dual-use product line, surveillance/cyber vendor relationship, or Project Nimbus-type state-cloud tie was identified in either the military or digital domains, and the audits’ Israeli-Nexus Floor test is not triggered for Nothing Technology.910

Target Profile

FieldDetail
Company NameNothing Technology Limited 10
JurisdictionUnited Kingdom - Companies House No. 12984564, incorporated 29 October 2020 11
HeadquartersBedford House, 21a John Street, London WC1N 2BF 11
SectorConsumer electronics - smartphones (Phone series), audio devices (Ear series), wearables, and the CMF sub-brand 10
OwnershipPrivate; sole director and sole active Person with Significant Control is Carl Pei (Swedish national); institutional investors include GV (Google Ventures), EQT Ventures, Tiger Global, Highland Europe, C Ventures/C Capital, and Qualcomm Ventures 9512
Key Executives / GovernanceCarl Pei (CEO, founder, sole director and PSC); co-founders Akis Evangelidis, David Sanmartín García, Steven Gao, Manu Sharma and Levi Li; Highland Europe partner Tony Zappalà (board observer); board director Toni Petersson 10131415
Israeli-Nexus SummaryNo direct Israeli operations, ownership, or defence/digital relationship; Israeli exposure is confined to an independent third-party Israeli retail distributor and a minority strategic investor with one Israel-linked executive; the audits’ Israeli-Nexus Floor is not triggered 910

Key Facts:

Executive Summary

Nothing Technology Limited is a privately held UK consumer-electronics company founded in October 2020 by Carl Pei and a small group of co-founders, building smartphones, wireless earbuds and headphones sold globally under the Nothing and CMF brands.1011 Across four independent domain audits - military, digital, economic and political - the documented Israel/Palestine nexus is narrow, exclusively commercial, and low-severity, driving the company to the bottom tier of the BDS-1000 framework.

The strongest documented vector is economic. Nothing does not operate directly in Israel; its entire Israeli retail presence runs through Bug MultiSystem Ltd., an Israeli-registered technology retailer (company no. 511860769, registered at Ben Shemen) owned by the Modan Group publishing conglomerate, which has served as the confirmed importer of record for the Phone (2a), Phone (3a) and Phone (3) launches across at least three product cycles and operates 65 or more branches nationally.1231920 This is an arm’s-length distributor relationship rather than a subsidiary, franchise, or joint venture, and no equity or governance link between Bug MultiSystem and Nothing was identified. Separately, Qualcomm Ventures - the strategic-investment arm of Nothing’s chipset supplier Qualcomm - participated in Nothing’s September 2025 $200 million Series C; Qualcomm Ventures’ managing director Boaz Peer has a documented former IDF and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems background, but the audit found no evidence that Peer or Qualcomm Ventures hold any board, observer, or advisory role at Nothing.45 Nothing’s use of Qualcomm Snapdragon chipsets - a standard, industry-wide component relationship shared by most Android device makers - is likewise a generic commercial semiconductor dependency rather than a defence- or state-linked tie, notwithstanding Qualcomm’s separate general-purpose R&D presence in Israel.52122

What is not supported by the evidence record is, by contrast, extensive. No public evidence identified of any defence, security, or dual-use contracting relationship: Nothing does not appear in Israel’s SIBAT defence-and-homeland-security supplier directory, in UK export-control licensing data for Israel, in the House of Commons Library’s or Campaign Against Arms Trade’s briefings on UK arms exports to Israel, or in any investigation, sanction, or legal proceeding tied to Israeli defence trade.23242526 No public evidence identified of any surveillance, cybersecurity, biometric, cloud-sovereignty, or AI relationship with Israeli state or commercial technology actors, and no participation in Project Nimbus or any comparable state-cloud programme was found.927 Nothing and its named principals do not appear in the OHCHR’s Business and Human Rights Database, in UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese’s July 2025 “economy of genocide” report, in PAX’s “Companies Arming Israel and Their Financiers,” in Al-Haq’s business-and-human-rights booklet, or in Who Profits’ investigations.67282930 Nothing has issued no public statement on Israel-Palestine - consistent with its issuing no public statement on any comparable geopolitical crisis, a null baseline rather than a selective silence - and is not named on BDS Movement’s “No Tech for Oppression” or “No Tech for Apartheid” campaign pages.31323334 An independent consumer boycott-tracking resource, Brands2Boycott, explicitly classifies the Nothing Phone at its highest clearance tier as “Not associated with israel,” though this classification carries no published sourcing methodology and is treated as a weak corroborating signal rather than an authoritative finding.8

Taken together, the evidence record supports a company whose Israel-facing footprint is limited to ordinary international consumer retail (via an independent distributor) and a minority strategic investor relationship, with no military, digital-surveillance, or political vector identified. This yields FINAL V4 scores of Military = 0.00, Digital = 0.00, Economic = 1.14, and Political = 0.00, producing a V_MAX of 1.14, a BRS of 71, and a Tier E (Minimal) classification - the lowest substantive tier in the BDS-1000 framework, reflecting a documented but low-severity, indirect economic footprint and no evidence of the more serious military, digital, or political vectors tracked elsewhere in the corpus.

Timeline of Relevant Events

DateEvent
29 October 2020Nothing Technology Limited incorporated in the UK (Companies House No. 12984564); Carl Pei appointed sole director.911
9 February 2021Carl Pei’s Person-with-Significant-Control filing, previously recording 75%+ of shares/voting rights, updated to “significant influence or control.”9
16 March 2021Indian subsidiary Essentially Nothing Private Limited incorporated.16
13 October 2021Nothing announces chipset partnership with Qualcomm (Snapdragon).21
2021Nothing acquires Essential Products’ brand assets (trademarks, Essential.com domain); a US-domiciled acquisition with no Israeli IP or assets involved.35
28 February 2023Phone (2) confirmed to run on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8-series chipset.22
28 June 2023$96 million Series B financing round closes, supporting US expansion.12
2024Phone (2a) covered by the Jerusalem Post as commercially available in Israel via Bug MultiSystem.3
2024–2025Phone (3a) covered as available in Israel via Bug MultiSystem.19
2 July 2025UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese’s report A/HRC/59/23 published; full-text review finds no reference to Nothing Technology, Nothing Phone, or Carl Pei.7
15 September 2025$200 million Series C closes, led by Tiger Global, with Qualcomm Ventures joining as a strategic investor.5
September 2025OHCHR updates its Business and Human Rights Database (158 enterprises); Nothing Technology is not listed.6
2025Phone (3) covered as available in Israel via Bug MultiSystem.20
December 2025Community Investment Round 3 raises $8 million from roughly 5,000 investors across 80+ countries at a $1.35 billion valuation; no Israeli institutional investors identified.3637

Corporate Overview

Nothing Technology Limited is a UK private limited company with a single, concentrated ownership structure: Carl Pei is the sole current director and the sole active Person with Significant Control, with no parent holding company or separate corporate entity above him in the chain of control.9 Prior directors on record include Timothy Bruce Warren Holbrow (April 2023–October 2025) and co-founder David Sanmartín García (January 2021–April 2023).13 The company’s only disclosed operating subsidiary is Essentially Nothing Private Limited in India, part of a broader reported plan for a roughly Rs 1,000 crore joint venture to make India a global manufacturing hub for the company; no Israeli subsidiary, branch, or registered entity has been identified at UK Companies House or in Israeli corporate registries.16 The three registered charges against Nothing Technology (filed December 2024) name Banco Santander, S.A. as security agent, with no Israeli-domiciled entity appearing in any chargeholder role.38 Carl Pei’s prior venture, OnePlus (co-founded 2013), operated under the BBK Electronics umbrella, which was deregistered in April 2023 with no continuing corporate link to Nothing.39

Nothing’s Israeli-market activity is conducted entirely through Bug MultiSystem Ltd., an Israeli-registered retail chain (company no. 511860769, registered address in Ben Shemen) that is part of the Modan Group publishing conglomerate and is managed by Eldad Benhay.1240 Bug operates 65 or more retail branches and an e-commerce storefront across Israel and has served as the confirmed importer of record for at least three Nothing product launches.4142 Whether any Bug branches sit within West Bank settlements, East Jerusalem, or the Golan Heights could not be verified - the retailer’s interactive branch locator and a delivery-terms page referencing “remote settlements” (יישובים מרוחקים) as a delivery-exception category returned an HTTP 404 during research, leaving this specific question unresolved rather than confirmed or ruled out.4243 This is a standard third-party distributor relationship, structurally identical to Nothing’s arrangements in its roughly 189 other national storefronts, with no franchise, joint-venture, or ownership tie identified.4445

Domain Summaries

Military: Military

Mechanism of Involvement

No public evidence identified of any defence contracting, procurement, dual-use product line, or supply-chain relationship between Nothing Technology and Israeli defence entities. Nothing manufactures consumer smartphones, audio devices and wearables with no ruggedised, mil-spec, or defence-grade product variant, and does not appear in Israel’s SIBAT Defense and HLS Directory of authorized defence and homeland-security suppliers.23 Nothing’s devices use Qualcomm Snapdragon chipsets, and Qualcomm Ventures is a Series C investor, but this is documented as a generic commercial semiconductor-supply and investment relationship with no identified tie to Israeli military or defence end-use.521

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

Nothing’s absence from the UK’s Israel-specific export-control licensing data, the House of Commons Library’s briefing on UK arms exports to Israel, and the Campaign Against Arms Trade’s briefing constitutes a consistent negative finding across independent regulatory and civil-society sources.242526 Nothing is also absent from the OHCHR database, the Albanese report, PAX’s arms-financiers report, and Al-Haq’s business-and-human-rights booklet.672829 A boycott-tracking source (Brands2Boycott) affirmatively clears “Nothing Phone” as “Not associated with israel,” though without disclosed methodology, and a May 2026 Intel Drop article appears by title to place Nothing in a similar no-documented-involvement category, but its full text could not be retrieved and this corroboration is treated as weak and unverified.846

Named Entities and Evidence Map

Carl Pei and Nothing’s other named executives and board actors carry no identified defence-industry or Israeli-military affiliation in any source reviewed.910

Digital: Digital

Mechanism of Involvement

No public evidence identified of any Israeli-origin cybersecurity, biometric, surveillance, or enterprise-software vendor relationship at Nothing. Independent security research on the Phone 3a found device telemetry routed to Google, Nothing and Qualcomm servers located in the EU and US, with no routing through Israel or Israeli-controlled infrastructure.47 No public evidence identified of Nothing’s participation in Project Nimbus or any comparable Israeli state-backed cloud programme, and no Israeli R&D facility, engineering office, or accelerator relationship was identified.27

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

Nothing is absent from Who Profits’ database, AFSC’s Investigate database, the “Don’t Buy into Occupation V” compilation, and Ethical Consumer’s boycott tracking.30484950 Qualcomm separately operates R&D centres in Israel (including Haifa and Hod Hasharon) as part of its global operations, but no source ties this activity specifically to the Snapdragon chipsets used in Nothing devices, and this is flagged as generic industry background rather than a Nothing-specific relationship.51

Named Entities and Evidence Map

None of Nothing’s disclosed institutional investors (GV, EQT Ventures, Tiger Global, Highland Europe, C Ventures/C Capital, Qualcomm Ventures) is an Israeli venture-capital firm or Israeli defence-technology investor.125

Economic: Economic

Mechanism of Involvement

Nothing’s Israeli market is served exclusively via Bug MultiSystem Ltd., the confirmed importer of record for the Phone (2a), (3a) and (3), owned by the Modan Group and operating 65-plus branches nationally.123192041 Nothing holds no equity stake, franchise agreement, or ownership interest in Bug MultiSystem. Separately, Qualcomm Ventures - managed by Boaz Peer, who has a former IDF and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems background - is a named strategic investor in Nothing’s September 2025 Series C, though Peer holds no board, observer, or advisory seat at Nothing.45

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

Nothing maintains no owned physical presence in Israel - no offices, warehouses, factories, data centres, or real estate - and its LinkedIn profile lists London as its only location.18 Its only acquisition, Essential Products’ brand assets, was a US-domiciled transaction involving no Israeli IP or assets.35 Its registered charges list Banco Santander, a Spanish bank, as security agent, with no Israeli entity in the chain.38 Its December 2025 Community Investment Round drew roughly 5,000 investors across 80+ countries with no named Israeli institutional participant.3637 The audit’s Israeli-Nexus Floor test - Israeli founding, headquarters, tax residency, Preferred Technology Enterprise status, or Israeli-capital control - is explicitly not triggered.910 Whether any Bug MultiSystem branch sits inside a West Bank settlement, East Jerusalem, or the Golan Heights remains genuinely unresolved due to a blocked branch-locator page, rather than confirmed either way.4243

Named Entities and Evidence Map

Bug MultiSystem Ltd. (Modan Group; Managing Director Eldad Benhay; company no. 511860769, registered in Ben Shemen) is the sole identified Israeli commercial counterparty.124052 Qualcomm Ventures Managing Director Boaz Peer is the sole identified individual with a documented Israeli-defence (IDF/Rafael) background connected to Nothing’s investor base, without governance authority over the company.4

Political: Political

Mechanism of Involvement

Nothing operates a standard localized e-commerce storefront for Israel at il.nothing.tech, offering its current device lineup under commercial terms identical to its other national storefronts; Israel is listed among the countries covered by Nothing’s international shipping infrastructure, and Israeli retail pricing coverage treats the market as an ordinary regional listing.44455354

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

Nothing and Carl Pei have issued no public statement on Israel-Palestine, Gaza, or the Occupied Palestinian Territory - a pattern consistent with the company’s and Pei’s absence of commentary on any other major geopolitical or social crisis (Russia-Ukraine, Black Lives Matter, COVID-19), making this a null finding rather than a selective silence.3132 Nothing does not appear on the OHCHR settlement-business database, in the Albanese report, on BDS Movement’s “No Tech for Oppression, Apartheid or Genocide” or “No Tech for Apartheid” campaign pages, or on the affiliated notechforapartheid.com site, all of which focus on named cloud and AI contractors rather than device manufacturers.67333455 NGO Monitor’s profile of the Who Profits initiative likewise contains no Nothing Technology reference.56 No public evidence identified of any Nothing Technology lobbying registration in the US Federal Election Commission database.57 Brands2Boycott affirmatively lists “Nothing Phone” as “Not associated with israel,” and a May 2026 Intel Drop article appears (by title only, unverified at full text) to place it in the same cleared category.846

Named Entities and Evidence Map

Co-founder and India President Akis Evangelidis’s public professional background (prior OnePlus EU marketing roles, Cass Business School) shows no defence-industry or Israel-linked affiliation.585960 Investor Tony Fadell holds no identified Israeli defence-technology board seat or investment role.61

BDS-1000 Score (V4)

DomainIMPV-Domain Score
Military0.000.000.000.00
Digital0.000.000.000.00
Economic4.003.504.001.14
Political2.000.000.000.00

V_MAX is driven entirely by Economic, reflecting the indirect, arm’s-length commercial exposure documented above - an independent Israeli retail distributor and a minority strategic investor with one Israel-linked executive but no governance role - rather than any direct, controlling, or state-facing relationship. Military, Digital, and Political all resolve to zero because no qualifying activity was identified in those domains (Political’s non-zero Impact score of 2.0 reflects the mere existence of an ordinary Israel storefront, but its zero Magnitude and Proximity scores reflect that this activity carries no distinguishing severity or directness). Under the scale-free Impact × magnitude/proximity methodology, this combination yields a BRS of 71 and places Nothing Technology in Tier E (Minimal) - the lowest substantive classification in the BDS-1000 framework - based on evidence that is documented, vetted, and does not extend into the military, digital, or political domains.

Methodology Note

End Notes

Footnotes

  1. https://www.bug.co.il/about-us ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  2. https://en.checkid.co.il/company/BUG+MULTISYSTEM+LIMITED-7GEOpZK-511860769 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  3. https://www.jpost.com/business-and-innovation/tech-and-start-ups/article-790493 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  4. https://www.qualcommventures.com/team/boaz-peer ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  5. https://techcrunch.com/2025/09/15/nothing-closes-200m-series-c-led-by-tiger-global-plans-ai-first-device-launch/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  6. https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/09/un-human-rights-office-updates-database-businesses-involved-israeli ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  7. https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/sessions-regular/session59/advance-version/a-hrc-59-23-aev.pdf ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  8. http://brands2boycott.org/safelist/safetech/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  9. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/12984564/persons-with-significant-control ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10

  10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothing_(company) ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  11. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/12984564 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  12. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/06/28/carl-pei-smartphone-startup-nothing-raises-96-million-from-investors.html ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  13. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/12984564/officers ↩ ↩2

  14. https://www.highlandeurope.com/nothing-closes-200m-series-c-plans-ai-first-device-launch ↩

  15. https://www.zawya.com/en/press-release/people-in-the-news/nothing-welcomes-new-board-director-toni-petersson-d4y5c15c ↩

  16. https://tracxn.com/d/companies/nothing/__zxa9DB7ttmZAM4BSGdvCAOn8Qq8uLzt9uYZz-i2UD5E ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  17. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/12984564/filing-history ↩

  18. https://uk.linkedin.com/company/nothing-technology ↩ ↩2

  19. https://www.jpost.com/consumerism/article-849069 ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  20. https://www.jpost.com/consumerism/article-859877 ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  21. https://9to5google.com/2021/10/13/nothing-partners-with-qualcomm-on-future-tech-ecosystem-using-snapdragon-chips/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  22. https://techcrunch.com/2023/02/28/nothings-phone-2-will-run-on-qualcomms-snapdragon-8-series/ ↩ ↩2

  23. https://www.sibat.mod.gov.il/Industries/directory/Pages/default.aspx ↩ ↩2

  24. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/export-control-licensing-management-information-for-israel/israel-export-control-licensing-data-31-july-2025 ↩ ↩2

  25. https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9964/ ↩ ↩2

  26. https://caat.org.uk/app/uploads/2024/04/Briefing_-UK-Arms-Export-Licences-to-Israel-April-2024-FINAL.pdf ↩ ↩2

  27. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Nimbus ↩ ↩2

  28. https://paxforpeace.nl/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/The-Companies-Arming-Israel-and-Their-Financiers-June-2024.pdf ↩ ↩2

  29. https://www.alhaq.org/cached_uploads/download/2024/07/04/business-and-human-rights-booklet-1720077751.pdf ↩ ↩2

  30. https://www.whoprofits.org/companies/company/3720 ↩ ↩2

  31. https://www.semafor.com/article/10/24/2023/few-ceos-are-speaking-out-about-israel-and-gaza ↩ ↩2

  32. https://fortune.com/2023/11/06/israel-gaza-war-ceos-comments-employee-protest/ ↩ ↩2

  33. https://bdsmovement.net/no-tech-oppression-apartheid-or-genocide ↩ ↩2

  34. https://bdsmovement.net/no-tech-apartheid ↩ ↩2

  35. https://www.notebookcheck.net/Nothing-reveals-why-it-bought-Essential-and-it-s-not-because-of-the-patents.1034559.0.html ↩ ↩2

  36. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/technology/tech-news/nothing-raises-8-million-from-5000-new-investors-from-over-80-countries-in-latest-community-investment-round/articleshow/126079322.cms ↩ ↩2

  37. https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/03/nothing-looks-to-community-raise-5m-wants-to-be-ipo-ready-in-3-years ↩ ↩2

  38. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/12984564/charges ↩ ↩2

  39. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBK_Electronics ↩

  40. https://rocketreach.co/bug-multisystem-ltd-profile_b5c43d5cf42e0d94 ↩ ↩2

  41. https://il.linkedin.com/company/bug-multisystem-ltd ↩ ↩2

  42. https://www.bug.co.il/branches ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  43. https://www.bug.co.il ↩ ↩2

  44. https://il.nothing.tech/ ↩ ↩2

  45. https://il.nothing.tech/pages/store ↩ ↩2

  46. https://www.theinteldrop.org/2026/05/11/phones-with-no-documented-israeli-involvement-per-boycott-ethical-sources/ ↩ ↩2

  47. https://cybernews.com/security/nothing-phone-3a-security-review/ ↩

  48. https://investigate.afsc.org/company/cellebrite ↩

  49. https://paxvoorvrede.nl/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/DontBuyIntoOccupationV2025.pdf ↩

  50. https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/ethicalcampaigns/boycotts ↩

  51. https://anysilicon.com/israeli-semiconductor-companies/ ↩

  52. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Shemen ↩

  53. https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0376/5420/0459/files/Legal_Shipping_Countries_List-v2108.pdf?v=1628499750 ↩

  54. https://il.mobgsm.com/mobile/nothing-phone-1-price-in-israel/ ↩

  55. https://www.notechforapartheid.com/ ↩

  56. https://ngo-monitor.org/ngos/who_profits/ ↩

  57. https://www.fec.gov/data/browse-data/ ↩

  58. https://uk.linkedin.com/in/aevangelidis ↩

  59. https://www.androidcentral.com/phones/nothing-co-founder-akis-evangelidis-phone-2a-interview ↩

  60. https://www.digit.in/news/general/exclusive-nothing-co-founder-akis-evangelidis-takes-over-as-india-president-aims-for-12000-retail-stores-by-year-end.html ↩

  61. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Fadell ↩