From a mother’s wish for effortless cleaning to a global leader in smart floor care, the robotics pioneer marks a decade of category-defining growth

NEW YORK, Oct. 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Founded in 2016 in Songshan Lake, Dongguan, China, Narwal celebrates its 10th anniversary today, marking a decade of groundbreaking achievements in smart home cleaning. The company pioneered the category with the world’s first self-cleaning robot vacuum and mop, which was named TIME’s Best Inventions of 2020. Today, Narwal ranks among the world’s top five robot vacuum brands by shipment volume (IDC, 2025), having shipped 1.7 million units globally in 2025, a 28.7% year-over-year increase. Through a decade of rapid expansion across 30 countries and regions, Narwal has remained anchored to its founding north star: Clean for Love.

“Narwal started with a simple wish: to make my mother’s life a little easier,” said Junbin Zhang, founder and CEO of Narwal. “That same wish now lives in more than 6 million homes globally. But what I’m most proud of isn’t our scale; it’s that our DNA hasn’t changed. We still build products the way we did from day one: by looking at a real problem a family faces with floor care and engineering a dedicated solution for it.”

A Mother’s Wish

Narwal’s story began ten years ago in a 270-square-foot office with a founding team of fewer than ten people. After overhearing his mother express frustration over the exhausting daily chore of mopping, Zhang found the motivation to start the company. That everyday struggle led to the product that defined Narwal’s early years: T10, the world’s first robot vacuum and mop with a self-cleaning system built into the base station. It fundamentally reshaped modern floor care and gave people their time back to spend with loved ones.

Clean is What We Do. Love is Why We Do It.

Born from a genuine desire to understand how people actually live, Narwal has spent the past decade studying homes and engineering solutions that make a real difference. Guided by three core principles: humanity, innovation, and freedom, Narwal believes technology should serve people. The company designs for actual household needs rather than racing to pad specs on paper. The ultimate goal is to deliver a cleaning-free lifestyle, freeing up time for what matters most.

The Engine Behind the Growth

A decade of user-centric innovation is now driving rapid global growth. Overseas revenue surged nearly 50% year-on-year from January to April 2026. When the flagship Narwal Flow 2 launched on Amazon U.S., it claimed the #1 spot in the robot vacuum new release category within 24 hours, with sales up 305% year-on-year over the prior generation.

Powering these results is a robust R&D engine featuring more than 1,500 patent filings and a team of over 700 engineers, who make up more than 40% of Narwal’s global workforce. Rather than relying on outsourced manufacturing, Narwal controls its supply chain end to end, from R&D through manufacturing and delivery. This integrated structure enables rapid product iteration and strict cost control, allowing the company to innovate without eroding brand value through price wars.

A Decade of Category-Defining Milestones

Narwal has grown from a start-up into a global household leader through a series of industry firsts:

• 2019: After three years of dedicated R&D, Narwal launched the T10, introducing automatic mop washing to the world and marking its first step from innovation into market.
• 2021: The industry’s first modular automatic water refill system hit the market.
• 2022: AI DirtSense™ became the first system to detect dirt in real time by analyzing wastewater, setting a new benchmark for smart cleaning.
• 2023: The Freo X Ultra featured a cyclonic anti-tangle roller brush, certified by SGS and TÜV.
• 2024: To tackle the complexity of real-world homes, Narwal launched Freo Z Ultra, the world’s first fully intelligent cleaning robot with dual RGB cameras and a dual-chip vision system. It reads its surroundings and adapts its cleaning strategy.
• 2025 – 2026: The Flow series pioneered the industry’s first real-time self-cleaning track mop, keeping the mop clean throughout every cleaning cycle.

Every Narwal innovation is designed with the whole home in mind. Recognizing that pets are part of the family, Narwal developed an anti-tangle roller system to tackle pet hair with less maintenance. Hot-water mopping helps remove stubborn, dried-on stains, while AI-powered obstacle recognition enables robots to navigate changing household environments, from avoiding crawling babies to identifying specific spills. With deep carpet cleaning capabilities and extended battery life, Narwal delivers a thorough, reliable clean across large homes and mixed floor types.

The Next Chapter

As Narwal enters its second decade, the company will continue to perfect floor care while deepening its commitment to smarter, scenario-adapted solutions, and advancing into broader spatial cleaning. The robotics industry will continue to evolve, but the core philosophy that sparked the company, “Clean for Love,” will remain unchanged.

About Narwal

Narwal is dedicated to developing innovative products that transform daily life. Our range of solutions addresses common challenges, with a focus on understanding and meeting user needs through extensive R&D. This commitment has yielded industry firsts such as the Auto-washing mop, AI-powered DirtSense™, and the DualFlow Tangle-Free System. We obsess over every detail to ensure our products are both functional and aesthetically pleasing, aiming to blend design and performance for a better daily life. As a top-five global vacuum brand, Narwal serves over 6 million users across 30 countries, including North America, South Korea, Germany, and Australia. Our innovations have been honored with awards such as the CES Innovation Awards, the Edison Gold Award, and Time Magazine’s Best Inventions. Learn more at Narwal.com.

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SOURCE Narwal