Melbourne startup RosterCloud acquired by ASX-listed tech company after a “lonely, hard road”

Melbourne online event rostering startup RosterCloud has been acquired by ASX-listed software company Rision.

RosterCloud, a team planning and analytics platform for events companies, was founded in 2011 by Melbourne Accelerator Program director Rohan Workman, along with Dan Fine and Tom Corrigan.

The exact financial details of the acquisition have not been revealed but 4 million shares will be changing hands as part of the deal.

The final deal is the culmination of nearly a year of discussions and hard work, Workman says.

“It’s nice to finally have it all done,” Workman tells StartupSmart.

“It’s great for both companies.”

RosterCloud is a cloud-based platform that helps events companies manage their own staff, while Rision is a team planning and analytics platform.

Workman says the deal makes good strategic sense, with Rision acquiring his startup’s large database of employees and clients including Damn Fine Foods and the National Gallery of Australia, while RosterCloud will now be able to greatly expand its reach.

“It means we can provide additional functionality to our customers and enhance the experience for Rision companies,” he says.

“We’ll be able to grow quicker overseas now.”

The RosterCloud platform will be wholly incorporated into the Rision platform over the course of a year, and Workman will be staying involved as an ambassador for this time and to help with the transition.

He says that while an acquisition was always in the back of his mind, it was never a short-term goal until the opportunity presented itself.

“We’ve always kept an open mind to these sorts of opportunities,” Workman says.

“They started to come up enough and we were keen to make something work. We’ve been talking for a while and it all fell into place.”

Rision CEO Kate Cornick says RosterCloud offers “simple, innovative and intuitive applications” and will be a perfect fit in the ASX-listed company.

“This is an important growth segment for us, as it has very high proportion of contingent, shift and casual employees, many of whom work for more than one employer, making the task of roster management extremely complex and labour-intensive,” Cornick says.

“We look forward to integrating RosterCloud into Rision and further boosting their highly successful range of products and services.”

For Workman and his team, the exit is validation for years of hard work and overcoming challenges, and provides a useful lesson for other founders and entrepreneurs.

“Keep at it – tenacity is the most important thing,” he says.

“In the early days it’s really hard. It’s a lonely, hard road and everything’s a struggle.

“You have to keep the momentum and it gets better.”

Follow StartupSmart on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and SoundCloud.