Reports of the exit of OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei from the organisation began to appear in the second week of October and were publicly confirmed shortly after. Although it was speculated that Carl Pei quit OnePlus to launch a new company, from the horse's mouth, we now have the official term. Today, in an interview with Wired, Pei shared a few details about his new company.
Carl Pei's business will concentrate on audio-related items, as per the interview. Although the exact product lineup is not revealed by Pei, his new business is said to have a "broader focus than just headphones."
There are already less than 10 workers of the new organisation and Pei appears to be aggressively hiring at the moment. The company will in addition, have its offices in London. "London is a fine city. Pei told Wired that it has a lot of good talent, particularly in the fields of design and user experience.
I am pumped for what @getpeid is building and grateful to play a small part in the journey :) https://t.co/VVQYL1Xop0
— Alex Debelov (@adebelov1) December 9, 2020
This comes just after a $7 million seed fund was raised by Pei's firm. Early investors include Tony Fadell (iPod inventor), YouTuber Casey Neistat, Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin, Steve Huffman, CEO of Reddit, and Josh Buckley, CEO of Product Hunt, among others.
"Pei said It was an amicable exit and we are still in touch, putting an end to speculations that indicated Carl Pei had an internal leadership problem with Pete Lau. A couple of weeks we text each other once. I told him that I was leaving] the cafe face to face. I don't think he saw it coming, so I set out my thanks very gently, and what I needed to do next. We met a few times [after that and he agreed and supported me in the end.
