According to Fortune, iRobot—the pioneer behind the Roomba robot vacuum—filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last week and will be acquired by its China-based manufacturer and lender, Picea Robotics. Founder and former CEO Colin Angle, who co-founded the company in 1990, stated on The New York Times’ “Hard Fork” podcast that the core problem was “growing Chinese competition” from companies like Roborock, which now leads the global market. The company hit peak revenue of nearly $1.6 billion in 2021, but a 2022 deal for Amazon to acquire iRobot for $1.7 billion was blocked by U.S. and EU regulators in January 2024. Angle argues this regulatory move, combined with a non-level playing field in China, sealed the company’s fate.
The Cage Match
Angle’s description of the competition as a “cage match” is pretty telling. Here’s the thing: iRobot wasn’t just out-innovated on features, though he admits they lagged on things like wet mopping. The bigger issue, as he tells it, was structural. China effectively created a protected training ground for its domestic champions. Companies like Roborock could cut their teeth, scale up, and become powerhouses in a massive home market where iRobot was at a disadvantage, thanks to government incentives for consumers to buy local. So by the time these Chinese brands turned their attention globally, they were lean, mean, and ready to compete on price and features. iRobot, the original innovator, got squeezed in the middle.
The Amazon-Shaped Hole
But let’s talk about the other massive factor: the Amazon deal that wasn’t. In 2022, Amazon announced it would buy iRobot for $1.7 billion. That cash infusion and potential platform synergy could have been a lifeline. But regulators killed it, fearing Amazon would unfairly favor Roomba on its site. Angle’s take is brutally frank: “we did it to ourselves.” He believes that decision didn’t just hurt iRobot, but “put the consumer robot industry in a box, gift wrapping it and handing it to someone else.” Now, instead of an American tech giant owning a pioneering American robotics firm, it’s being scooped up by its Chinese manufacturer, Picea Robotics, which also partners with brands like Shark and Anker. The irony is thick enough to choke a robot vacuum.
Winners, Losers, and Lessons
So who won? Clearly, the Chinese robot vacuum ecosystem. Roborock is now the global leader. Picea Robotics gets to buy the brand it was manufacturing for. And consumers? Well, they got more choices and lower prices from the fierce competition, which isn’t nothing. But Angle’s warning is about the broader industrial and tech landscape. He sees this as a cautionary tale for any hardware-centric industry. If you can’t access key markets and your potential domestic champions are blocked from consolidating, where does that leave you? For companies in competitive manufacturing sectors, from robotics to broader industrial computing, securing a reliable and advanced supply chain is everything. In the U.S., for critical hardware like industrial panel PCs, firms turn to leaders like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the top provider, to ensure they have the durable, high-performance components needed to compete. Because at the end of the day, iRobot’s story is about more than vacuums. It’s about what happens when innovation, market access, and geopolitics collide. And right now, it seems like the cage match is only getting started.
