saas.group acquires workforce planning startup Aplano in its 28th acquisition

saas.group, a conglomerate of independent SaaS businesses, announces the acquisition of Aplano, a Berlin-based workforce planning software for small and mid-sized businesses.

This acquisition marks saas.group’s 28th successful acquisition and strengthens the group’s HR software portfolio.

Tim Schumacher, Founding Partner at saas.group, says, “Aplano is exactly the kind of company we love to back: founders who lived the problem themselves, funded the business from their own pocket, and built something thousands of shift-based businesses depend on every day.

“Shift work keeps pharmacies, care homes and shops running, yet many of these teams still plan their week in spreadsheets. Aplano gives our HR portfolio a strong product for people who don’t work at a desk, and we’re excited to help the team take it further.”

Across Europe, 2026 has brought several funding announcements for software serving shift-based and frontline teams, giving context to today’s acquisition.

In Germany, Karlsruhe-based Nesto raised €11 million for hospitality workforce management, Stuttgart-based Flip secured €22 million for frontline AI software, Berlin-based Bounti raised €4 million for operational automation, and Berlin-based Elephant Company collected over €5 million for employee training.

Elsewhere, Ireland’s HR Duo secured €1.6 million for HR and rostering software, while Spain’s Orbio raised €18.09 million for its AI workforce platform.

These rounds total more than €61.69 million.

David Gregorian, co-founder of Aplano, adds, “Aplano started in a pharmacy, where one of us was planning shifts in spreadsheets and sorting out every change over chat messages. 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. Today more than 2,500 businesses plan their weeks with Aplano, and the next stage needs more than three founders can give it.

“saas.group has done this many times before, and from the first conversation they cared about our customers as much as we do. For the pharmacies, care services and shops that rely on Aplano, nothing changes today. Same product, same people, with a much bigger team behind it.”

Founded in 2020, Aplano brings shift planning, time tracking and absence management into one app. Managers build and publish schedules, while employees check their shifts, swap them, enter availability and request leave. Working hours are recorded by phone, tablet or terminal and exported for payroll.

Serving pharmacies, care services, retail, hospitality, logistics and cleaning businesses, Aplano is used by more than 2,500 companies.

For saas.group, this fits their bill of acquiring promising SaaS businesses with strong product-market fit and ARR between €1.7 million ($2 million) and €8 million ($10 million).

Founded in 2017 by Tim Schumacher, Ulrich Essmann, Tobias Schlottke, and David Khalil, the company has acquired 28 companies to date, including Tower, Rewardful, Prefender, Jicer, Seobility, Timebutler, and most recently 3D AI Studio.

Tadeus Gregorian, co-founder of Aplano, says, “We were looking for a simple solution for our own shift planning, so we built one. It soon turned out that what worked for us was useful to many other businesses too. By keeping Aplano straightforward and easy to get started with, we were able to onboard companies from very different industries. With saas.group, we see an opportunity to take Aplano further while preserving the simplicity that helped us grow in the first place.”

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