Deel, the US payroll and HR software company, announced on 5 May 2026 that it had bought Sastrify, a Cologne-based startup that helps companies track, buy and renegotiate their software subscriptions. UC Today, citing Staffing Industry Analysts, reported that the deal closed at the end of April.
Terms were not disclosed. According to law firm CMS, which advised Sastrify and its shareholders, all of Sastrify's investors and its founders sold their shares to Deel, and the company is being fully integrated into Deel's corporate structure. Orrick advised Deel.
Sastrify's team is joining Deel, and its product becomes part of Deel IT, Deel's unit for equipping and managing employees' technology. Deel said Deel IT would add software licence purchasing, renewal management and spend optimisation to the hardware provisioning it already offers.
What Sastrify built
Sastrify was founded in 2020 by Maximilian Messing and Sven Lackinger, who had previously founded evopark. Its software shows companies which applications they pay for, how much they are used and when contracts renew. It also negotiates on customers' behalf using pricing benchmarks, which Reworked said are drawn from more than $2 billion of SaaS contracts.
CMS described a newer AI-based product suite meant to find unsanctioned software, score vendor risk and help with documentation for European rules such as NIS2, DORA and the AI Act. Customers have included Gorillas, Sennder, Babbel and Pleo, according to Osborne Clarke, and Spendesk, Usercentrics and Capchase, according to Reworked. Reworked put the headcount in a range of 51 to 200 employees.
“Acquiring Sastrify was a strategic decision to expand our IT portfolio beyond device management into full software lifecycle management.”
Why Deel is buying
Deel started building its IT business in July 2024, when it bought Hofy, which handles laptops and other equipment for remote staff. Sastrify covers the software side, so Deel can now offer customers one place to see devices, software licences, spending and renewals.
Deel argued that software is one of the fastest-growing and least understood costs for companies, and that the spread of AI tools could double it. Many companies still track contracts in spreadsheets and chase renewals by hand, it said. Michael Ginzo, senior director of product for Deel IT, described the purchase as a move to expand beyond device management into managing the whole life of software.
UC Today saw a link between HR and software spending: when people join, change roles or leave, their software access and licences have to change too, and an HR platform already knows when that happens.
The founders and the funding
Sastrify raised around $50 million over its life, according to Deutsche Startups. Its largest round was a Series B of just under $32 million in May 2023, led by Dutch investor Endeit Capital with Düsseldorf-based Simon Capital and existing investors HV Capital, FirstMark Capital and TriplePoint Capital, Osborne Clarke reported. The round was extended in November 2023, and Reimann Investors later joined.
Growth was expensive. Deutsche Startups reported that Sastrify lost €9.9 million (about $10.4 million) in 2022, up from €1.7 million (about $2 million) the year before. Reworked reported that both founders were joining Deel. Deutsche Startups said the purchase price was not known.
Deel's run of acquisitions
Sastrify adds to a long list of Deel purchases. In 2024 Deel bought Zavvy, a Munich people-development startup, and PaySpace, a payroll provider for Africa and the Middle East, followed by compensation software company Assemble. In August 2025 it took over the enterprise payroll division of Safeguard Global, Reworked reported.
Deel, founded in 2019, was valued at $17.3 billion after a $300 million Series E led by Ribbit Capital in October 2025, and Reworked reported annual recurring revenue of $1.4 billion by March 2026. Reworked also said Deel had set aside $200 million to $500 million for acquisitions and had mentioned a possible US stock market listing later in 2026.
