Essential, Now Worth $1.2B, Still Hasn’t Shipped Their First Phone

A new filing by Foxconn’s FIH Mobile for a $3 million investment in high-end smartphone startups Essential  has revealed Essential’s market value to be approximately $1.2 billion.

Thanks to FIH Mobile’s latest filing, I can tell you that @Arubin‘s Essential is now a unicorn, valued at appx $1.2bn

— Tim Culpan (@tculpan) August 14, 2017

According to Bloomberg’s Tim Culpan, FIH Mobile’s investment constituted a 0.25% stake in the company’s fortunes.

Therefore, a single 1% slice of Essential comes in at approximately $12 million and the whole pie represents a $1.2 billion enterprise.

For a company that’s still yet to ship a single product to customers, it’s quite a feat.

It’s a surprising milestone for the company to pass, particularly given its recent troubles.

Essential recently missed their self-imposed launch date for their first product and lost a number of high-level executives.

Amid these setbacks, Essential also secured $300 million in funding from Amazon, Tencent and others.

The company’s President Niccolo De Masi says that the startup has global potential to be “a brand where there is an emotive connection for consumers,” and that international carrier relationships for the company’s Essential phone would be announced later this year.