CMF Goes Solo: Carl Pei Spins Off Nothing’s Sub-Brand Into a 100% Indian Company

Big shake-up in India’s smartphone world. Nothing CEO Carl Pei has confirmed that CMF, the budget-friendly sub-brand launched back in 2023, is breaking away to become a standalone, majority Indian-owned company — headquartered in India, with its own team and R&D on the ground. Nothing will still hold a stake and stay on as a partner, but CMF is now flying solo with a bold goal: scaling to 100 million smartphones a year.

Why Split CMF From Nothing?

In an open letter titled “India Is Inevitable,” Pei explained that India already has strong manufacturing muscle but lacks deep engineering and R&D capability — something he witnessed firsthand while building Nothing in a market shaped by China’s supplier ecosystem. His belief: India has the talent and demand, but no home-grown consumer electronics brand pushing suppliers to build cutting-edge components locally. CMF is being positioned to fill that exact gap.

Pei didn’t hold back on why Indian smartphone brands lost their edge. According to him, the domestic market share crashed from nearly 46% in 2015 to under 1% today, largely because local players leaned on off-the-shelf ODM designs instead of investing in real engineering — while global brands kept innovating with better cameras, chips, and design every year.

CMF’s Spin-Off: Key Facts

Despite pausing new phone launches this year due to supply chain and rising component costs, CMF has been expanding its footprint with a growing TWS (true wireless earbuds) lineup — signaling it isn’t slowing down, just recalibrating.

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