Newsletter
Over the past few years, the robot vacuum cleaner industry has become a highly competitive market, with many new players entering the field. However, not every company has been able to keep up with the competition, as Neato Robotics, one of the major competitors to iRobot’s Roomba series, recently announced its closure due to declining sales and an inability to meet its economic goals.
Founded in 2005 by a group of Stanford graduates, Neato Robotics quickly made a name in the robot vacuum industry by pushing the envelope and introducing new features like Wi-Fi in 2011 and LiDAR mapping in 2020. However, despite the initial success and Vorwerk’s purchase of the company in 2017, Neato continued to struggle due to a lack of focus on independent sales in e-commerce and brick-and-mortar retail.
“The Vorwerk Group has therefore decided to further expand its investments in the area of vacuum cleaner robotics and to strengthen the robotics competence within the group by bundling development capacities centrally at the R+D location in Laaken,” reads the company’s blog post announcing the decision.
Vorwerk’s plans and impact on the industry
In an effort to give its existing customers the support they need, Neato says it has established a team of 14 professionals based in Milan, which will be responsible for maintaining the company’s cloud services for at least five years and will also help provide spare parts to users.
Although Vorwerk’s efforts in providing support to existing users are commendable, this closure will have a significant impact on the industry. As it stands, iRobot currently holds over 46% of the market, with Ecovacs and Roborock claiming 17% and 9% of the market, respectively. However, iRobot’s market domination and Amazon’s bid to purchase the company have caught the attention of American and European regulators, who have expressed concerns about potential harm to the competitive landscape.