saas.group buys Berlin shift-planning start-up Aplano in its 28th acquisition
Software holding company saas.group has acquired Aplano, a Berlin-based workforce planning app used by more than 2,500 small and mid-sized businesses. The deal is saas.group’s 28th acquisition and adds a shift-scheduling product to its growing collection of HR tools. The terms were not disclosed.
Aplano was founded in 2020 and was funded by its founders without outside investment. It combines shift planning, time tracking and absence management in one app that works on the web and on employees’ phones. Managers build and publish rotas, and staff use the app to check shifts, swap them, set their availability and request leave. Hours are clocked by phone, tablet or terminal and exported for payroll. Its customers include pharmacies, care services, retailers, hospitality and logistics firms, and cleaning companies.
The idea came from the founders’ own work. “Aplano started in a pharmacy, where one of us was planning shifts in spreadsheets and sorting out every change over chat messages,” said co-founder David Gregorian. “We built the tool we wished we’d had, paid for it ourselves, and kept it simple enough that a team can start using it on day one.”
Gregorian said the business had outgrown its three founders. “The next stage needs more than three founders can give it,” he said. He added that existing customers would see no immediate change: “Same product, same people, with a much bigger team behind it.”
Co-founder Tadeus Gregorian said keeping the product simple had let Aplano win customers across very different industries. He said the founders saw the deal as a way “to take Aplano further while preserving the simplicity that helped us grow in the first place.”
For saas.group, the deal is a move into software for staff who don’t work at a desk. Founding partner Tim Schumacher said that many shift-based teams still plan their weeks in spreadsheets. “Shift work keeps pharmacies, care homes and shops running,” he said. “Aplano gives our HR portfolio a strong product for people who don’t work at a desk.”
saas.group was founded in 2017 by a group of tech entrepreneurs. It buys established software companies and runs them as part of a portfolio. Its earlier acquisitions include Tower, Rewardful, Prefender, Jicer, Seobility and the absence-management tool Timebutler. Its most recent was 3D AI Studio.
Lina Law and BA Group advised saas.group on the deal. FE International and EKM Law advised Aplano.
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