Quick Answer: Axalta Coating Systems Ltd., also known as simply Axalta, is an American company specializing in coatings in a wide variety of industrial applications, materials and sectors, including automotive paints. The company is based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and incorporated in Bermuda. Axalta develops and manufactures coatings for light and commercial vehicles, industrial, and refinish applications. The firm does business in 130 countries, has nearly 13,000 employees, and has more than 100,000 customers. Axalta traces its origins to the German firm Herberts Gmbh, which began in 1866 coating carriages before moving to automotive painting. Through later mergers the company became DuPont Performance Coatings, part of the American DuPont chemical empire, and was rebranded as Axalta Coating Systems after being purchased by The Carlyle Group in 2013. Axalta went public on the New York Stock Exchange in November 2014 and since then has become fully independent.