You know a brand is respected when its name is associated with its product. Take Kleenex or a band-aid, for example. Irobot, the makers of the robovac room that started by opposing these frameworks around independent disc spaces, has now been overtaken by its vacuum manufacturing partner. No product can stand up to brand recognition alone, especially not when every other company is selling the same thing for cheap.
On Sunday, Irobot, the longtime Countba Brand of Robovacuums, declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In their press release, the company said it was selling them to its contract manufacturer, Picea robots. Irobot promised that it was trying to finish the chapters 11 “Restructuring” in progress in February 2026 and says that the current users of ROUNBA may face disruption of the current service.
If you have a short memory, you may not remember when Irobot tried to sell itself on Amazon. That agreement was filed due to European regulators in early 2024, leaving the company to rebel like a room locked under a unit in the corner of the room. Irobot was already outsourcing most of its operations after the death of its Amazon, which is how Pine entered the picture.
Based in Shenzhen, China, Picea Robotics is an extensive manufacturing partner for major robotics brands, including shark and anker (under the eufy sub-brand). In a press release, Irobot said that Picea has sold more than 20 million robovacs in its lifetime, which is significant since the company (written as 3Irobotix) was founded in 2016, according to its LinkedIn page. The 3i brand also has its own line of vacuums.
PICEA can just take the ranba brand name as their own and start shipping their vacuums with the logo stamped on them. ROORBA’s best models were always on their own without much flair. Do the job by snapping at all the dust bunnies that are rolling around on the floor. Irobot’s latest vacuums include the same innovation as the combo room of the ROUMBA 10 Max with additional features that allow you to clean your mop and move its bin. That device costs $1,300, so maybe there’s a reason Irobot hasn’t seen such a good return. CORORBA has also tried robovacums with automation for portable pets, which would inevitably create a lot of abuse that will be forced to clean later.
The home robotics field is already full of China-based brands, such as eufy, ecovacs, Dreame, and Roborock. Hell, we now have drone-maker DJI entering the Fray. One of the latest “new” roborocks he had cleaned the robotic arm into a vacuum with his saros z70. Unfortunately, the robotic appendage did not perform well in real life situations. There is only so much innovation you can do with this form factor, so much so that IFA 2025 is full of ycha vacuum suits to help them climb the ladder. Others, such as ecovacs, have tried to attach the Ayi chatbot to the vacuum, if you happen to want to talk to your dust sweeper.
All these unnecessary things do not do with a better robot vacuum. Our favorite Robot Vacuum of the year was the Big, Blocky, but handsome matic robot vacuum. Simply put, it had very precise manipulation and computer vision capabilities without requiring a cloud connection. Because of the efficient vacuum and mop, do you really need it?
