IFA 2026: Neakasa Riko and M9 automate cat feeding and cleaning

Neakasa announced two pet-care appliances at IFA 2026 in Berlin: the Riko smart wet-meal feeder, which prepares food from freeze-dried ingredients on demand, and the M9 Self-Cleaning Cat Litter Box, built around an open cleaning chamber intended to reduce pinch and entrapment risks. Riko was named an IFA 2026 Innovation Award Honoree. The M9 was presented separately, with features focused on safety, access and odor control.

At IFA 2026, Neakasa presented connected hardware that automates two repetitive pet-care tasks through a companion app. Previous IFA coverage has tracked smart-home devices ranging from Anker’s local-storage MindBase to Xiaomi and DJI hardware. The company’s official IFA 2026 announcement does not disclose pricing or identify which markets will receive either product.

Riko prepares wet meals instead of storing them

Most automatic feeders dispense food that has already been prepared. Riko starts with freeze-dried food in dry form, then grinds it and mixes it with water at feeding time. Owners select the portion and hydration level, so the machine is designed to produce a fresh wet meal for each scheduled feeding rather than hold prepared wet food in the device.

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The water-to-food ratio can be adjusted from 1:1 to 5:1, with portions from 1 to 15 grams. Riko supports more than 20 scheduled meals per day. Its 3-liter food bin and 2.4-liter water tank are rated to support up to 10 days of automated feeding for one 12-pound adult cat, depending on the animal’s feeding amounts and the schedule.

That capacity claim applies to a specific reference animal and depends on portions and frequency. It should not be read as a fixed refill interval for every cat or feeding plan. Neakasa also doesn’t provide, in the supplied announcement, the grinder’s motor specifications, mixing time, cleaning procedure, noise level or the operating conditions behind the 10-day figure.

The Neakasa app exposes controls for unattended feeding: schedules, portion sizes, food and water levels, and feeding history. Riko officially launched across all platforms on September 8, 2026, the final day of IFA 2026. The announcement gives no US price, retailer list or confirmation that the product is available to US buyers.

M9 keeps the litter chamber open during cleaning

The M9 takes a different approach to its core safety risk. Its TILT-SAFE Rotation design keeps the litter chamber open throughout the cleaning cycle, which Neakasa says reduces locations where a cat could become trapped or pinched. That is a structural claim rather than a software feature: the safety behavior is tied to how the chamber rotates and remains exposed during the cycle.

The box has a 96-liter OpenView Cabin with open sightlines and a low-entry design with an entrance of approximately 26 centimeters. The opening is intended to make access easier for kittens and senior cats, although the announcement does not specify a maximum cat weight, the dimensions of the full unit, the litter types it supports or how much waste the collection system holds.

For odor and moisture management, M9 combines activated carbon with a desiccant layer in its PureTower Odor Control System. The release describes that combination as helping reduce odors and manage moisture; it does not provide filtration life, replacement costs, measured odor-reduction results or a cleaning interval.

The M9 is scheduled to launch across all channels on October 9, 2026. That is a future launch date relative to the September 4–8 IFA event, so the product was shown at the trade show but was not described as generally available there. Neakasa has not announced its price or confirmed US availability.

Two products, two launch dates

Riko’s differentiator is food preparation, while M9's is the geometry of the cleaning cycle. Neither announcement supplies the information that usually determines whether a connected appliance is practical to own: purchase price, consumable costs, maintenance requirements and the exact regions where it will ship.

Neakasa is a brand of Genhigh, a company established in 2017 that develops products under its Neakasa Home and Neakasa Pets lines. At IFA 2026, the company presented Riko’s award recognition alongside visitor interest in the M9, but the supplied material contains no independent testing, benchmark data or user-safety certification beyond the product descriptions. Until pricing and regional availability are published, US buyers won’t know whether either device will be sold here as a retail product or have limited distribution.