18 years in the business but the game is up
Neato Robotics, one of the leading manufacturers of robot vacuums, has announced that it is shutting down production.
Stefan Watzinger, a spokesperson from parent company Vorwerk told Tech Hive that Neato is “being closed down despite lots of restructuring efforts,” and has “not achieved its self-defined economic goals for several years now.”
While there will be no more Neato robo cleaners produced, there are assurances that there will be some level of support for existing users.
Watzinger explained that a team inside Vorwerk will “ensure the security of the infrastructure of Neato’s cloud services for at least five years.”
Spare parts and repair service will also be “guaranteed for at least five years.”
Neato Robotics was founded in 2005 and quickly became one of the leading brands in the robot vacuum market. The company’s D-shaped machines products were known for their high quality and innovative features.
Neato believed the D-shape was better equipped to get all up in the corners of your home where circular robot vacuum cleaners might struggle.
Neato’s last big launch was way back at IFA 2020 where it revealed the Neato D10, D9 and D8, following on from the success of the Neato D7 and D6 models.
However, in recent years, the robot vacuum market has become increasingly competitive; iRobot, the market leader in the western world is subject to an ongoing $1.7 billion acquisition from Amazon and Chinese brands such as Ecovacs and Roborock have massively pushed the envelope for the industry in recent years.
However, despite biting the dust, Neato Robotics’ legacy lives on in the wider robot vacuum cleaner industry. The company’s early innovations and contributions – it basically introduced Wi-Fi to robo cleaners and was an early LiDAR pioneer – helped to pave the way for other brands to create high-tech, automated cleaning devices that have transformed the way we maintain our homes.
