Razer Acquisition Of Nextbit Is Next Step On Path To Smartphone Ambitions

As one of the premier brands in the industry of personal gaming computers, Razer has already made a name for itself as one of the most highly respected hardware firms in the world. The company just added a startup called Nextbit to its roster, which is responsible for creating the smartphone called Robin.

The financial details surrounding the deal have not been disclosed, TechCrunch reports, but it would seem that Nextbit is getting a lot of money from it. Along with the intellectual property and assets, it would seem that the 30 employees working at the startup will also be brought onboard by Razer, so the original team working on the Robin will still be involved.

The Robin smartphone gained a lot of attention when it launched, causing a huge fuss among techies early last 2016. Nextbit had raised over $18 million via Accel, Dentsu, and GV, and then turned to Kickstarter to really rack up some publicity. In the end, the startup was successful in marketing the mobile device, which many praised for some of its revolutionary features.

According to Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan, Nextbit will operate as a standalone business, developing products as it has done before the acquisition. It would seem that the company has been keenly observing the smartphone rebel of a startup and have become fans of what it has been trying to do.

“We’ve been huge fans of what Nexbit has been doing, both the work on the phone technology and on the cloud-based storage side of things. There is a lot of potential and talent,” Tan said in an interview.

Tom Moss, the CEO of Nextbit elaborates on this by saying that the team will be focusing on creating new things in the mobile market, The Verge reports. He didn’t provide specifics on any of their upcoming products, however.