Rolf Kluge

Co-Founder, CTO and Managing Director Appsfactory

Last Reviewed: September 28, 2026

Executive Summary

Rolf Kluge is co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Appsfactory, the Leipzig-based digital product agency group, and one of its three managing directors alongside CEO Alexander Trommen and COO Roman Belter. A business informatics graduate of the University of Leipzig, he designed the SmartRunner geotracking technology as a student, and the company he co-founded in 2009 began life as SmartRunner GmbH. Appsfactory has since grown into an owner-managed group of more than 450 people building apps and digital platforms for clients such as AOK, Axel Springer, BMW and Tagesschau. In 2026 the iBusiness ranking placed it first among Germany’s founder-led independent digital agencies.

Career Highlights

• Co-founded Appsfactory in Leipzig in 2009 and has served as its CTO since; named as a Geschäftsführer (managing director) in the company’s legal notice.
• Designed and developed the internationally awarded SmartRunner geotracking technology while studying business informatics at the University of Leipzig.
• Worked in the academia team of Microsoft Deutschland GmbH from 2003 to 2005.
• Lectured at the University of Leipzig and Macquarie University in Sydney, and from 2014 at the Leipzig School of Media.
• Named, with his two co-founders, Saxony’s Entrepreneurs of the Year 2020.

Professional Journey

Kluge was born in Leipzig and studied business informatics at the University of Leipzig. While still a student he designed and built SmartRunner, a geotracking technology for runners that won international recognition, working on it with Roman Belter, a fellow business informatics student he had known since school. Between 2003 and 2005 he also worked in the academia team at Microsoft Deutschland.

In 2009 Kluge and Belter founded the company with Alexander Trommen, who brought experience in mobile marketing. It was first registered as SmartRunner GmbH and became Appsfactory, a specialist in app development that broadened into a full-service agency for digital products, design, consulting and applications. Kluge has been CTO since the founding, with Trommen as CEO and Belter as COO; all three are managing directors.

The company’s growth earned the three founders the title of Saxony’s Entrepreneurs of the Year 2020, when Appsfactory reported revenue up almost 70 percent to €16.3 million and more than 100 new jobs created in the previous year. It has since expanded to offices across Germany, nearshoring development centres in Chișinău and Skopje, and a group that includes Peak Performance Apps and the design agency Edenspiekermann, with more than 450 staff in total. In September 2026 Appsfactory announced it had been ranked first among Germany’s founder-led, independent digital agencies in the iBusiness ranking.

Alongside the business, Kluge has taught at the University of Leipzig and Macquarie University in Sydney, and since 2014 at the Leipzig School of Media.

Education

University of Leipzig

Business Informatics (Wirtschaftsinformatik); the degree type is not stated in the sources consulted. He uses the title Dr., but the awarding institution of his doctorate was not established from any source consulted.