Over a decade as the most popular robot in the world was not enough to save iRobot.
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The legendary creator of the Roomba robot vacuum cleaner, iRobot, officially filed for bankruptcy in December 2025. This event was not just the collapse of one brand, but a painful symptom for the entire American robotics industry. Behind the external causes — the failure of the Amazon deal and fierce competition from China—lies a deeper drama, which company founder Colin Engle calls an "avoidable tragedy."
The Golden Age and the first cracks
iRobot was founded in 1990 by three MIT graduates — Colin Engle, Helen Greiner and Rodney Brooks. Their dream of practical home robots materialized in 2002 with the release of Roomba, which created an entire market for consumer robotics. Over the next two decades, more than 50 million devices were sold. The peak occurred in 2021, when the company's revenue reached $1.56 billion. However, even then, clouds appeared on the horizon: Chinese competitors such as Roborock, Ecovacs and Dreame began to actively push iRobot in the key Asian market.
The Amazon Deal: The Hope That Killed
In August 2022, iRobot announced an agreement to be taken over by Amazon for $1.7 billion. For the founders, this seemed like a logical salvation: the giant could provide resources for innovation and competition. "We just didn't have the capital to move as fast as we wanted to," Engle later admitted.
However, regulators in the US and the EU saw the deal as a threat to competition. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the European Commission launched an investigation that dragged on for 18 months. According to Engle, this time was fatal for the company: iRobot was forced to spend huge amounts of money on compliance, postponed innovation, and in January 2024, after the final rejection of regulators, the deal fell apart. "It should have been an obvious decision. Instead, it was a year and a half of procrastination that destroyed the company," says Engle.
The Chinese factor: "fast followers"
While iRobot was fighting with regulators, Chinese competitors didn't waste any time. They received direct government subsidies (an average of about 17.5% of the cost of equipment) and had a secure home market for honing technology. Engle called them "Chinese fast followers." By 2025, iRobot's share in the European market dropped to 12% and continued to decline. The company lagged behind in such functions as combining vacuuming and mopping, and its strategy of relying on Vision navigation instead of lidars (as with competitors) raised questions.
Finale: bankruptcy and transition to Picea
In December 2025, iRobot filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. According to the restructuring plan, all of the company's assets will be transferred to its Chinese contract manufacturer, Picea Robotics, which is also a major creditor. Picea will receive 100% of iRobot shares, writing off the debt of $190 million and additional debt of $74 million. iRobot's current CEO, Gary Cohen, is trying to remain optimistic, talking about the company's "stronger and more focused future." However, for many, this looks like the final loss of American control over the pioneer of consumer robotics.
Expert opinion: lessons and warnings
Colin Engle, founder of iRobot: "We were sidelined as part of a larger political agenda. This kind of regulation is incredibly disruptive to an innovative economy." He sees the iRobot story as a warning to all technology startups, especially in the United States, where there is no large-scale government support for robotics comparable to China's.
Brian Heather, Editor Automate.org "iRobot is an extended success story, which, however, shows how even a centenarian can fail to withstand a combination of global crises, regulatory pressure, and fierce competition."
Analysts at Asian Robotics Review note that Chinese companies are now dominating not only manufacturing, but also innovation, rapidly adopting technologies such as lidar navigation, which iRobot has long ignored.
What's next for the market and for us?
Consumers should not panic: even if iRobot shuts down cloud services, most Roombas will continue to work offline. However, the choice in the market may narrow, and prices may rise due to reduced competition.
The future of home robotics now largely depends on whether Western companies can find new growth models. Ironically, in an era when robots are becoming more autonomous, some startups are already thinking about giving them something like "career ambitions" - for example, using task—finding platforms like JOBTOROB.com , which positions itself as the world's first robot recruitment agency. It sounds like fiction so far, but the collapse of iRobot reminds us that in the world of technology, today's joke can become tomorrow's business model.
