New Delhi, Feb 16 : Nothing Technologies, the newly-launched venture of OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei, has acquired smartphone brand Essential that shut shop last year, the media reported on Tuesday. According to a report in 9to5Google, the Essential brand which was launched by Android co-founder Andy Rubin but did not succeed and the company was closed last year, is now officially owned by Pei's Nothing Technologies. Recent filings at the UK Intellectual Property Office show that Rubin has signed over ownership of his one-time smartphone brand Essential to Pei's Nothing Technologies Limited. "This process was completed as of January 6, 2021, with the application actually being made as early as November 11, 2020," the report said. It means that all existing trademarks, logo, and the entire Essential brand are now the intellectual property of Pei's Alphabet-invested startup. Nothing aims to expand its operations in Europe with headquarters in London and release its first smart device, likely to be a hearable one, in the first half of this year. Last week, the consumer technology company announced it has raised $15 million in a Series A round led by GV (formerly Google Ventures), a venture capital investment arm of Alphabet which is the parent company of Google. London-based Nothing has so far raised over $22 million. In December, the company raised $7 million in seed financing in December that included tech leaders and investors such as Tony Fadell, Casey Neistat, Kevin Lin, Steve Huffman and Josh Buckley. /IANS