iRobot’s Roomba was once the biggest name in robot vacuums – so big that some still use it as a synonym for the whole product category. So what happened to the company to cause it to fall from its lofty perch to the point where it was forced to file for bankruptcy, saved from oblivion thanks to a takeover by Chinese contract manufacturer Picea?
An expensive approach
iRobot co-founder and previous CEO Colin Angle has called the Picea takeover “profoundly disappointing” and “avoidable”, blaming the collapse of a potential Amazon acquisition, which was nixed by regulators, for the position iRobot eventually found itself in (you can read his statement to TechRadar here.)
Cohen, however, feels the issues began well before that acquisition was even on the horizon.
My predecessor’s vision of connected homes and camera-based vision technology was great, but we couldn’t execute against it.
Gary Cohen, iRobot CEO
“The Amazon deal was a big setback for the company, but there were many years of issues that led up to the situation we’re in, and it’s important to highlight those without denigrating the prior team,” he told me. “My predecessor was a visionary, and he was brilliant, and […] his vision of connected homes and camera-based vision technology was great, but we couldn’t execute against it.
“When I joined back in May 2024 it was apparent to me, and to some of the folks that I had assigned to help me do this restructuring, that we needed to change the way we were doing business,” Cohen told me.
Cohen recalls how he inherited high fixed-cost contracts and “over-engineered” products. He explains that at that point all the tooling, engineering and purchasing was happening in the US, with only the final manufacture taking place overseas. It made for a very expensive process.
The bold decision was made to axe the entire legacy product line and replace it, and under Cohen the company also adopted a more integrated (and cost-effective) relationship with its manufacturer – which at this point was the same Picea Robotics that now owns iRobot.
Under the previous model, the contract manufacturer was basically drafted in right at the end to be the ‘screwdriver’ that just assembled the product. The new approach saw iRobot defining the specs it wanted, but with Picea getting more involved with “engineering development, tooling, purchasing and even testing”.
It wasn’t enough to save iRobot from being sold, but it put the company on a more cost-effective trajectory, and saw it establish a close working relationship with Picea.
High cost, low satisfaction
High costs were only part of the issue. “We were not competitive in the marketplace,” continues Cohen. “Our cost of goods was too high. The products were hard to make, but also, importantly, we weren’t delighting consumers.”
iRobot lost an opportunity in the marketplace because they weren’t close enough to the consumer, or didn’t bother to listen to the consumer.
Gary Cohen, iRobot CEO
Cohen says if he’d been involved with the company at an earlier point, he would have prioritized customer needs. “At the time when iRobot was facing some of its competitive challenges, I would have taken the competition more seriously, and I would have set up a consumer framework model,” he tells me.
“So as an example, consumers wanted these combination mops and vacuums. The iRobot team at the time said, ‘No, we’re going to develop the best mop and the best vacuum.’ Which was great from a technical standpoint, but consumers didn’t go there. So [iRobot] lost an opportunity in the marketplace because they weren’t close enough to the consumer, or didn’t bother to listen to the consumer.”
iRobot was similarly behind the curve when it came to developing a multifunctional dock – one that didn’t just empty the bot’s small onboard dustbin, but could also do things like refilling its water tank and even washing and drying its mop pads. It released its first attempt in 2024 – the Roomba Combo 10 Max – but by Cohen’s own admission it “wasn’t the best, most competitive product”.
“So [at that time] we’re losing market share in Europe because we’re not participating. And those are all strategic decisions that were made several years ago.”
Tariff turmoil
Of course, external factors did also play their part. Cohen had been trying to sell iRobot in the first half of 2025, but big changes to US tariff policy generated too much uncertainty for potential buyers.
“It really curtailed our pipeline of options, because there were many companies that were interested in us that had tariff exposure, and they said, ‘Well, this is too much uncertainty. We can’t buy a company right now.'” Cohen recalls. “We did finally get one company that was really interested in buying us, but they couldn’t come to terms with our primary lender at the time, which was Carlyle. And so that deal fell apart in October.”
Cohen had to quickly pivot to try and save the company. “Chapter Seven [liquidation bankruptcy] was not something I really wanted to have happen,” he told me. “I had too much invested in the company and the employees, and so we went to Picea and said would you be interested in buying the company? And that’s how it materialized.”
So what does the future look like now, under Picea’s stewardship? In terms of immediate effects, Cohen says it’s “business as usual”, with previously developed products already being showcased to European retailers now, for launch in spring 2026.
Longer term, he’s feeling positive that this will turn things around, with a new, consumer-first approach, and one that focuses on making robot vacuums accessible to a wider audience. We’ll be watching with interest.
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