Nothing Smartphone Maker Expands Manufacturing in India, Eyes Global Market Potential, ETTelecom

Image via Akis Evangelidis (@AkisEvangelidis) on X. New Delhi: UK-based smartphone maker Nothing is betting on India, both as a consumer market and as a manufacturing hub. Having become the fastest growing smartphone firm in India for the past six quarters, it is now planning to expand production of wearables in the country.

“(In) India, we see massive opportunities, especially the role that India has to play on a global level… we want to be building from India to the world. We started kind of relocating the operations as well for sub-brand CMF to leverage the Indian capabilities because we see India as basically what China was 10 years ago,” Akis Evangelidis, cofounder of Nothing, told ET.

On the back of exponential growth, the company has moved its complete global marketing function to India. Recently it announced the appointment of Himanshu Tandon as vice president of business of CMF.

As per Counterpoint, in the April-June quarter, Nothing clocked 146% year-on-year growth in shipments, driven by the introduction of new models, making it the fastest growing brand.

Evangelidis said that the ‘Make in India’ initiative has helped expand the manufacturing ecosystem in the country in the past few years and that even firms like Apple are exporting from India to the US.

“I think the ‘Made in India’ initiative has drastically shifted the manufacturing from China to India, and I think things are only getting better and going in the right direction,” he said.

The company’s broader strategy is to strengthen its presence in India by leveraging the country’s position as a growing hub for high-quality manufacturing and technological innovation.

Nothing is aggressively building the leadership in India and also expanding the retail and distribution business. It currently operates five exclusive service centres—in Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai—along with 20 priority desks and more than 330 authorised service centres. Its retail presence has expanded fivefold to 10,000 stores from 2,000 stores at the beginning of last year.

“We see India as what China was like 10 years ago. Things are going to be happening here and we just don’t want to be passive and think India’s market potential can bring on a global scale. For us, we have to be part of the journey and we want to contribute to that,” he said.

Asked whether the US tariffs could impact the electronics manufacturing momentum in India, Evangelidis said there could be some kind of impact. “But our skill and our company is something we don’t really take so much into consideration, so our focus is still India and this won’t be changing with respect to whatever’s happening in that part of the world. It’s not changing our plans,” he said.

• Published On Sep 9, 2025 at 07:18 AM IST

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