iRobot’s Roomba was as soon as the largest identify in robotic vacuums – so large that some nonetheless use it as a synonym for the entire product class. So what occurred to the corporate to trigger it to fall from its lofty perch to the purpose the place it was pressured to file for chapter, saved from oblivion because of a takeover by Chinese language contract producer Picea?
An costly method
iRobot co-founder and former CEO Colin Angle has referred to as the Picea takeover “profoundly disappointing” and “avoidable”, blaming the collapse of a possible Amazon acquisition, which was nixed by regulators, for the place iRobot ultimately discovered itself in (you’ll be able to learn his assertion to TechRadar right here.)
Cohen, nevertheless, feels the problems started nicely earlier than that acquisition was even on the horizon.
My predecessor’s imaginative and prescient of related houses and camera-based imaginative and prescient expertise was nice, however we could not execute in opposition to it.
Gary Cohen, iRobot CEO
“The Amazon deal was an enormous setback for the corporate, however there have been a few years of points that led as much as the scenario we’re in, and it is necessary to spotlight these with out denigrating the prior crew,” he instructed me. “My predecessor was a visionary, and he was good, and […] his imaginative and prescient of related houses and camera-based imaginative and prescient expertise was nice, however we could not execute in opposition to it.
“Once I joined again in Could 2024 it was obvious to me, and to among the of us that I had assigned to assist me do that restructuring, that we would have liked to alter the best way we had been doing enterprise,” Cohen instructed me.
Cohen recollects how he inherited excessive fixed-cost contracts and “over-engineered” merchandise. He explains that at that time all of the tooling, engineering and buying was occurring within the US, with solely the ultimate manufacture going down abroad. It made for a really costly course of.
The daring resolution was made to axe all the legacy product line and substitute it, and beneath Cohen the corporate additionally adopted a extra built-in (and cost-effective) relationship with its producer – which at this level was the identical Picea Robotics that now owns iRobot.
Underneath the earlier mannequin, the contract producer was mainly drafted in proper on the finish to be the ‘screwdriver’ that simply assembled the product. The brand new method noticed iRobot defining the specs it needed, however with Picea getting extra concerned with “engineering improvement, tooling, buying and even testing”.
It wasn’t sufficient to avoid wasting iRobot from being offered, nevertheless it put the corporate on a cheaper trajectory, and noticed it set up a detailed working relationship with Picea.
Excessive value, low satisfaction
Excessive prices had been solely a part of the problem. “We weren’t aggressive within the market,” continues Cohen. “Our value of products was too excessive. The merchandise had been laborious to make, but in addition, importantly, we weren’t delighting shoppers.”
iRobot misplaced a possibility within the market as a result of they weren’t shut sufficient to the buyer, or did not trouble to take heed to the buyer.
Gary Cohen, iRobot CEO
Cohen says if he’d been concerned with the corporate at an earlier level, he would have prioritized buyer wants. “On the time when iRobot was dealing with a few of its aggressive challenges, I might have taken the competitors extra severely, and I might have arrange a shopper framework mannequin,” he tells me.
“So for instance, shoppers needed these mixture mops and vacuums. The iRobot crew on the time stated, ‘No, we’ll develop the most effective mop and the most effective vacuum.’ Which was nice from a technical standpoint, however shoppers did not go there. So [iRobot] misplaced a possibility within the market as a result of they weren’t shut sufficient to the buyer, or did not trouble to take heed to the buyer.”
iRobot was equally behind the curve when it got here to creating a multifunctional dock – one that did not simply empty the bot’s small onboard dustbin, however may additionally do issues like refilling its water tank and even washing and drying its mop pads. It launched its first try in 2024 – the Roomba Combo 10 Max – however by Cohen’s personal admission it “wasn’t the most effective, best product”.
“So [at that time] we’re dropping market share in Europe as a result of we’re not collaborating. And people are all strategic selections that had been made a number of years in the past.”
Tariff turmoil
After all, exterior elements did additionally play their half. Cohen had been making an attempt to promote iRobot within the first half of 2025, however large adjustments to US tariff coverage generated an excessive amount of uncertainty for potential patrons.
“It actually curtailed our pipeline of choices, as a result of there have been many corporations that had been all in favour of us that had tariff publicity, and so they stated, ‘Effectively, that is an excessive amount of uncertainty. We won’t purchase an organization proper now.'” Cohen recollects. “We did lastly get one firm that was actually all in favour of shopping for us, however they could not come to phrases with our main lender on the time, which was Carlyle. And in order that deal fell aside in October.”
Cohen needed to shortly pivot to try to save the corporate. “Chapter Seven [liquidation bankruptcy] was not one thing I actually needed to have occur,” he instructed me. “I had an excessive amount of invested within the firm and the staff, and so we went to Picea and stated would you be all in favour of shopping for the corporate? And that is the way it materialized.”
So what does the longer term appear to be now, beneath Picea’s stewardship? By way of speedy results, Cohen says it is “enterprise as common”, with beforehand developed merchandise already being showcased to European retailers now, for launch in spring 2026.
Long run, he is feeling optimistic that it will flip issues round, with a brand new, consumer-first method, and one which focuses on making robotic vacuums accessible to a wider viewers. We’ll be watching with curiosity.
The most effective robotic vacuums
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