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From Altstätten to more than 150 companies.

Across Europe, people are missing for the work nobody wants to do anymore: in the paint booth, at the end of the line, on the night cleaning shift. Robonnement brings robots, complete systems and intelligence exactly there. We buy, finance, install and operate everything, and our customers pay a fixed monthly fee. More than 200 robots already work this way for more than 150 customers in 5 countries. Now comes the next step: with Robonnement Intelligence, every plant keeps the knowledge of its best people, and people, robots and machines work as one system.

Nimrod Malinas, founder and CEO of Robonnement, next to a Lesta painting robot

We make physical work intelligent.

The Robonnement team receives the Digital Economy Award 2024 on stage at the Hallenstadion in Zurich.
The Robonnement team at the Digital Economy Award 2024 in Zurich’s Hallenstadion.

Our story

Rooted in 1934.

How a paint industry supplier in Altstätten became Robonnement: from selling spray guns and pumps to robots on subscription.

  1. Founded in Altstätten

    On June 1, 1934, K. Lips AG is founded in the Rhine Valley of St. Gallen. It sells painting and compressed-air equipment to workshops and industry.

  2. Application technology for the paint industry

    K. Lips AG supplies spray guns, pumps and mixing and dosing technology to paint shops, from small workshops to industrial plants. More than 4,000 businesses supplied with application technology since 2008.

  3. Nimrod Malinas takes over

    Nimrod Malinas, who had been selling painting equipment, takes over K. Lips AG. At his customers he sees the same thing every day: they can no longer find painters, wages are rising, and the work in the booth harms their health.

  4. The first painting robots

    When people are missing, a robot can fill the gap. The first two painting robots go to customers, one in Switzerland and one in Germany. The first one starts painting on a carousel in October 2021.

  5. Robonnement is born

    Many companies lack the money for a robot of their own. That leads to the robot subscription: the customer pays a fixed monthly fee, much like a wage, and we buy, install and run the robot. The first subscriptions start in Germany and Switzerland.

    Freshly powder-coated sheet-metal boxes hang from the conveyor of a powder line, with the coating booth behind.
    Passt Coating AG in Nunningen has been coating with robots on subscription since 2022.

  6. More robots on subscription

    More and more companies paint with robots on subscription, from family businesses to corporate plants. Banks and leasing partners finance the fleet. In October, Nimrod Malinas presents the subscription on the Romanian show “Imperiul Leilor” on PRO TV.

  7. Recognized

    Robonnement wins the Digital Economy Award 2024 in the Digital Excellence Commercial category, and Forbes names Nimrod Malinas to its 30 Under 30 Switzerland list. In October, the first cleaning robot goes to work at a customer site.

    A cleaning robot cleans the floor of a sports hall and leaves wet tracks behind.
    Cleaning robot in a school sports hall in the Rhine Valley.

  8. From the booth to halls, clinics and terminals

    swiss DINNO Award 2025 (award winner) and Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe. Cleaning robots now work in sports halls, clinics, schools and food plants. In December, the pilot with five waste robots starts at Zurich Airport.

    A service robot with two waste bins and an information screen stands in an airport terminal hall.
    Waste robot in the pilot, December 2025.

  9. Today

    Robonnement Intelligence

    Robonnement Intelligence adds a data layer across the whole installed base: every plant keeps the knowledge of its best people. Since March, our robots have been cleaning at CERN. At Zurich Airport we win the public tender: 18 robots, 15 for waste and 3 for service. The Krone Group orders a robot for powder coating at its plant in Emsland.

Heritage

If you understand paint, you build better robot cells.

Before we set up robots, we supplied spray guns, pumps and dosing technology and got them running on the shop floor. That knowledge of paints, powders, nozzles and film thicknesses is in every robot we teach together with a painter today. We still supply the application technology.

  • More than 4,000 businesses

    supplied with application technology since 2008.

    Source: Robonnement order archive, 2008 to 2026

Application technology

How we work

Five steps, one partner.

We build every system for one plant, not from a catalog, and we look after it for as long as it runs.

  1. Walk-through

    We come to your plant and look at parts, line and floor areas. Often we can tell you right there whether a robot is worth it.

  2. Concept

    Layout and simulation in your booth or hall, with room for the next step.

  3. Test with your parts

    In a running plant that works with our robots, for example in Nunningen or near Karlsruhe.

  4. Installation and commissioning

    During your plant shutdown or station by station. A cleaning robot takes us about two hours to set up.

  5. Operation and service

    Remote support first, then a technician on site. Scheduled maintenance and safety checks, a report after every visit.

When we advise against it

We tell you when a robot makes no sense. Before the order, not after.

Examples from industry Examples from cleaning

Day to day

A day at Robonnement

Real jobs with dates. Customers who are not named are described by industry and region.

  1. Krone Group, coating plant in Emsland

    Weekly meeting with the powder supplier, eight people, one question: how does a robot coat the underside of more than 100 body variants whose height changes in small steps?

    View case: Krone Group, coating plant in Emsland

  2. Window manufacturer in the Upper Palatinate

    Retrofit of an entire paint line, station by station, 14 of 14 days on schedule. On September 20, the line runs fully automatically for the first time.

    View case: Window manufacturer in the Upper Palatinate

  3. CERN, Geneva

    After the summer, CERN asks us to extend the robots’ areas. Since then, floor after floor has been added.

    View case: CERN, Geneva

  4. Agricultural machinery maker in the Osnabrück region

    Calibration with a fixture the customer built in-house. We fine-tune the collision detection, which had been switched off because of false alarms.

    View case: Agricultural machinery maker in the Osnabrück region

  5. Paint shop in Saarland

    The planned training is not needed, the team can already operate the robot. Instead, we write new programs for a large part with the painter, who has been there since 3 a.m.

    View case: Paint shop in Saarland

  6. Plastics paint shop for medical technology in the Black Forest-Baar district

    Day 1: unload, put up the fences, assemble the 2K rack, check the stock, order missing parts. The robot arrives the next day. Handover on September 11, 2026.

    View case: Plastics paint shop for medical technology in the Black Forest-Baar district

  7. Two technicians, two days, five robots

    Maintenance on five robots at four customers, plus a first annual safety check (passed).

  8. Family-owned paint shop in Emsland

    No paint at the gun. We take the line apart piece by piece, find the cause and agree on a maintenance protocol.

    View case: Family-owned paint shop in Emsland

  9. Job coater in Emsland

    A collision in the morning, axis 4 offset by about 4 degrees. Mechanics checked, re-referenced, programs tested with the painter. After about four hours, production is running again.

    View case: Job coater in Emsland

The people behind Robonnement

A team in Switzerland, Germany and Romania: technicians, programmers, designers and a service team that knows every robot.

Nimrod Malinas with the Digital Economy Award 2024 trophy.

Awards

Digital Economy Award 2024, Digital Excellence Commercial, winner
  • Digital Economy Award 2024, winner Digital Excellence Commercial
  • swiss DINNO Award 2025, award winner
  • Forbes 30 Under 30 Switzerland 2024 and Europe 2025
  • Digital Shaper Eastern Switzerland 2025, finalist
  • EY Entrepreneur Of The Year, nominated 2025

Covered by Forbes, BILANZ and watson, among others.

Press

What others write about us

39 pieces since 2021, from Forbes and BILANZ to the trade press. Summaries by us, links to the originals.

All 39 pieces in the newsroom

More than 200 robots. More than 150 customers. 5 countries.

Locations
Robonnement AG, Altstätten · Robonnement GmbH, Hamburg
Heritage
Roots going back to 1934 (K. Lips AG)
Team
A team in Switzerland, Germany and Romania

Others do research in the lab. We work in more than 150 companies.

Altstätten and on the road

Real photos from our projects, with place and month.

  • A workshop with a workbench, tool wall, compressors and shelves under a low ceiling.
    Workshop with workbench and tool wall Robonnement in Altstätten,
  • Tall metal shelves full of boxes and parts in a storeroom, with a doorway on the right.
    Shelving store for materials and parts Robonnement in Altstätten,
  • A painting robot stands on a pallet truck in a bright paint booth lined with film.
    The new robot is moved into the booth on a pallet truck Camouflage Automotive, Heilbronn,
  • Three cleaning robots stand at their charging docks against a concrete wall, pallets on the left.
    Three cleaning robots at their charging docks Retail distribution center in the canton of Lucerne,
  • A painting robot stands in a booth right next to a chain conveyor that carries the parts past it.
    The robot is in place next to the chain conveyor Family-run paint shop in the Hegau region,

Tell us where things are stuck.

Phone +41 71 755 49 14 Email [email protected]

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