Thank You for Meeting the Challenges of 2020, and Happy Holidays

I couldn’t be more proud of how iRobot employees rose to the occasion, both at work and at home, to take on every twist and turn that 2020 threw at us.

In the last year, I saw truly amazing things happen at iRobot. Our accomplishments and progress were driven by camaraderie, support, focus, patience, understanding, adaptability, perseverance and teamwork. Thanks to the persistence of iRoboteers around the globe, we’ve been fortunate to place ourselves on a path to achieve results that seemed highly improbable nine months ago. We are incredibly excited about the opportunities we see to move into the next phase of our growth and maturation. Amazingly, we accomplished this while also completely re-inventing the way we work.

When the COVID-19 health crisis emerged earlier in the year, our people immediately responded. They sought out opportunities where iRobot could help, donating thousands of masks and face shields and launching campaigns to support relief funds, among many other actions. My colleagues around the world stepped up and made a difference.

This was also a year in which we reiterated iRobot’s commitment to equality, inclusiveness and respect for all people, and rededicated the organization in supporting these foundational elements. Again, people across the iRobot organization led the charge, helping us develop new capabilities and programs that will continue to raise our awareness and education around racial equality and discrimination.

With all of this going on, the people of iRobot still managed to guide us through some amazing accomplishments on the business side. We kicked off the year by crossing the milestone of 30 million robots sold, and followed that with the exciting launch of the Roomba s9+ in Asia-Pacific. We also unveiled the new Genius Home Intelligence platform, redesigned the iRobot Home App and launched the Roomba i3 and i3+ in North America.

As students and educators adapted to new ways of learning, our people also ramped up their commitment to STEM education. We made resources available through the iRobot Education website and introduced the new Root rt0 coding robot, all while iRoboteers continued virtually providing STEM resources for teachers and hosted hundreds of students via Zoom for career panels and workshops.

I mention all of this only to highlight what our team committed to and saw through over the last 12 months. In a year like 2020, none of this would have been possible without an incredible group of dedicated employees focused on our mission while also serving the greater good. It was remarkable to see this cooperative spirit take root as we all retreated to over 1,000 individual home offices. When reflecting on everything that got done – under trying circumstances that nobody foresaw – it’s downright impressive.

We’ve been through quite a bit this year. Because of this – rather than in spite of it – I truly believe the future is brighter than ever for iRobot. I want to thank all of the amazing people who made this possible – as well as those who have supported them at home! And to all of you, I wish you and your families the happiest holiday season.