is a senior reviewer with over twenty years of experience. She covers smart home, IoT, and connected tech, and has written previously for Wirecutter, Wired, Dwell, BBC, and US News.
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iRobot, the owner of the Roomba robot vacuum, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, stating that it will be acquired by its contract manufacturer, Picea Robotics. The Chinese-based company assumed iRobot’s $190 million loan earlier this month and, under the terms of iRobot’s restructuring, will waive that debt, along with the $161.5 million iRobot owes it for manufacturing its robots. In return, Picea will own iRobot in its entirety.
A screenshot of the Picea Corp. web page listing companies it partners with.
As I noted at the time, the new Roombas iRobot had staked its financial future on shared little to no DNA with the original Roombas, and looked like much of the mid-range competition — generic, Lidar-based robot vacs with the Roomba name and a few design tweaks plastered on. I’ve tested two of the new Roombas, the 505 and the 205, and have been underwhelmed, running into significant issues with both models.
Picea, part of Picea Corp., has R&D and manufacturing facilities in China and Vietnam, and claims to have manufactured and sold more than 20 million robotic vacuum cleaners. Last year, it launched its own line of robot vacuums under the 3i brand, including one with a dust-compacting system similar to the Roomba 205.
I’ve tested a couple of the 3i vacuums, including the flagship 3i S10 Ultra. It’s an impressive beast of a machine that features a unique water-recycling system, which uses a dehumidifier to keep its clean-water tank full. It also has a smart dirt-scanning tech that uses a green light to spot stains and will return to repeatedly scrub them, similar to Dyson’s latest bot.
While iRobot has stated it plans to continue operating as normal following its bankruptcy, Roomba’s future under Picea’s ownership is unclear. What is clear is that the domination of the robot vacuum space by Chinese-owned brands and manufacturers is only growing.