How Apaleo stays lean and innovates faster with an API-first security strategy.
Apaleo is the open property management platform for hotel and serviced apartment groups. Their API-first architecture disrupts traditional hospitality software, allowing accommodation providers to build a custom, "best-of-breed" technology stack.
Industry
Hospitality | PMS
Size
90+ employees
Location
Munich, Germany
In conversation with
Background
Founded in 2017 in Munich, Apaleo was created to solve the "clunky" limitations of legacy hotel systems.
Today, they manage over 85,000 units across 30 countries for massive brands like citizenM and numa, recently securing €20 million in Series B funding to scale their autonomous hotel vision.
The Challenge
As a lean startup, Apaleo knew they couldn’t afford to waste months navigating the bureaucratic maze of high-level PCI certification. They needed to move at the speed of light without compromising on the security of sensitive cardholder data.
Avoiding the "compliance drain"
Apaleo recognized that building an in-house security infrastructure for payment data was a massive distraction from their core mission.
"Becoming PCI compliant is a process that can be extremely complex, taking some companies months, or even years to achieve... as a lean startup, apaleo did not see this as an ideal solution."
The Solution
Instead of hiring a massive security team, Apaleo stayed true to their API-first DNA and integrated PCI Proxy.
Experts for the experts
By using a specialized partner to handle the data, Apaleo ensured that their own systems never "touched" a credit card number.
"Knowing that its very own open API approach was all about connecting with specialists in their field, apaleo chose to find experts in the payments and PCI compliance field."
The Result
With PCI Proxy filtering and tokenizing data before it reaches their servers, Apaleo successfully reduced their PCI scope to the absolute minimum.
Innovation without the red tape
This setup allows their developers to ship new features daily without triggering a security audit every time they update their code.
"The company remains focused on moving fast and innovating, with speedy release cycles for new functionality and a plethora of new clients and partnerships in the pipeline."
The Conclusion
For a "composable" hospitality platform like Apaleo, a token vault isn't just about security—it’s about business agility.
By externalizing the burden of PCI DSS, they’ve maintained a "lean" operational model while managing some of the world’s largest hotel groups.
In the modern SaaS world, if you can outsource the risk, you should.
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