What Trickle does

Trickle, operated by Aptiq Works Limited and headquartered in Edinburgh, is an employee voice and continuous improvement platform built around a structured Sprint model. Founded in 2019 by Paul Reid (CEO) and Mandy Kerley (COO), the platform centres on three core engagement tools — Trickles (structured idea/concern lifecycle with community-driven impact scoring), MoodSense (pulse surveys with simultaneous result reveal to prevent bias), and Flares (private anonymous escalation channel) — supported by Shout-abouts, Fist Bumps, and an always-on mood indicator ("How Was Your Day?"). The architecture is cloud-hosted across Microsoft Azure and AWS with data residency in the UK, Ireland, and Netherlands, and the platform runs natively inside Microsoft Teams. AI moderation screens user submissions for safety; the moderation layer was not triggered in the documented NHS Lanarkshire deployment.

The commercial model combines time-bound Sprints with recurring subscriptions. A £995 Starter Sprint (4 weeks, up to 250 users) sits below most procurement thresholds and functions as a self-serve PLG entry point. Extended 12-week Sprints price under £5,000 by user volume, Annual Programmes bundle multiple Sprints around an organisational calendar, and the "Always On" tier provides per-seat monthly recurring engagement. All customers engage directly with the founders rather than through a sales or account management layer. Distribution is founder-led sales plus Microsoft Teams embed and content marketing (case studies, blog, public sector events).

Trickle's customer base is anchored in UK NHS and public sector — NHS Lothian, NHS Lanarkshire (Women's Services plus seven follow-on Sprints), NHS Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust, an NHS Scotland Acute Medical Unit, and West Dunbartonshire Council — with logos in the private sector (Vault City Brewing) and third sector (Leuchie). The platform is cited in the Scottish Government Future Medical Workforce Project Phase 1 Report as an example of digital tools supporting NHS staff engagement. Regulatory certifications include UK Cyber Essentials Plus and NHS Data Security and Protection Toolkit Standards Met (ODS code SP443). Total disclosed funding is approximately £1 million raised in September 2023 from Equity Gap, NoBa Capital, and Scottish Enterprise, following an earlier Techstart Ventures round in 2019.

Name

Trickle

Legal name

Aptiq Works Limited

Website

https://trickle.works

Company type

Private

Founded year

2019

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Trickle is an Edinburgh-based employee engagement platform that turns staff feedback into visible action through time-bound Sprints, serving primarily UK NHS trusts and public sector organisations via founder-led sales and Microsoft Teams integration.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Employee Engagement Software

akta.pro primary industry

Cloud Strategy, Assessment & Roadmap (BPAEACAA)

akta.pro secondary industry

Cloud Managed Services (M365/Azure/AWS/GCP) (BPAEABAE)

Keywords

• Employee engagement software
• Staff voice platform
• Workforce engagement tools
• Continuous improvement platform
• Feedback analytics software

Headquarters

HQ city

Edinburgh

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Sprint Subscriptions: Time-bound engagement sprints priced as fixed-price packages. Entry-level Starter Sprint at £995 for 4 weeks and up to 250 users. Extended 12-week sprints priced under £5,000 based on user volume. Annual programmes for organisations running improvement as a continuous discipline. Always On option priced per user per month for continuous engagement.
2. Always On Platform Access: Persistent always-on feedback channel for organisations needing continuous rather than project-based engagement. Priced per user per month, shaped around organisation size and needs.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Trickle is a cloud-based employee engagement platform that runs time-bound Sprints (4–12 weeks) anchored to a strategic theme, in which staff raise ideas and concerns via Trickles, run pulse checks via MoodSense, and report sensitive issues via Flares. Each adopted issue is assigned a Champion who drives it to resolution, with outcomes visible to the entire team in real time, supported by AI moderation, Microsoft Teams integration, and NHS-grade security certifications.

Product overview

Trickle is an employee voice and continuous improvement platform that offers a single unified product architecture with multiple integrated tools. The core platform centres on three main engagement tools (Trickles, MoodSense, and Flares) supplemented by three supporting tools (Shout-abouts, Fist Bumps, and How Was Your Day?), all unified within a Sprint model delivery framework. Trickles serves as the primary engine where staff raise ideas and concerns through a structured lifecycle; MoodSense provides structured pulse questions with simultaneous result reveal; Flares offers a private channel for sensitive matters. Supporting tools reinforce the engagement culture through broadcasting, peer recognition, and ongoing mood tracking. The platform is delivered via time-bound Sprint programmes (4-week Starter Sprint at £995, 12-week Typical Sprint under £5k, or Annual Programme for continuous engagement) plus an Always On option for persistent engagement.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Trickle Sprint: A focused, time-bound engagement programme (4-12 weeks) built around a specific strategic theme where staff identify priorities, champions drive action, and outcomes are visible to everyone.
• Trickles
• MoodSense
• Flares

Products and services

• Trickle Employee Engagement Platform Cloud-based employee engagement platform delivered through time-bound Sprints (4–12 weeks) anchored to a strategic theme, combining three core tools (Trickles for raising ideas and concerns through a structured lifecycle, MoodSense for simultaneous anonymous pulse checks, Flares for private sensitive reporting) with supporting tools (Shout-abouts for broadcasts, Fist Bumps for private peer recognition, How Was Your Day? for ongoing mood indicators). Each adopted issue is assigned a Champion who drives it to visible resolution, with AI moderation ensuring constructive feedback, integration inside Microsoft Teams, and NHS-grade security certifications; targets NHS trusts, UK local government, and private sector organisations navigating change.

Quantifiable outcome

• 74% of staff contributions taken forward by leadership
• +7 more outcomes

Named customers8 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration2 records

AI capability2 records

Feature11 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core and flagship.

• MicrosoftcoreTechnology or IntegrationTrickle runs inside Microsoft Teams, making it available to organisations with existing Microsoft infrastructure. The platform is hosted on Microsoft Azure for NHS and public sector organisations with specific data residency requirements. Microsoft Azure and AWS are used for geo-redundant, secure infrastructure with data stored in UK, Ireland, and Netherlands.
• Amazon Web Services (AWS)coreTechnology or IntegrationTrickle data is hosted on Amazon Web Services as part of a multi-cloud strategy. AWS is used alongside Microsoft Azure for 3-layer backup redundancy and geo-redundant secure infrastructure.
• CloudflarecoreTechnology or IntegrationCloudflare Web Application Firewall (WAF) provides DDoS protection for the Trickle platform, ensuring security and availability of the service.
• Healthcare Improvement ScotlandcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerHealthcare Improvement Scotland published the Scottish Approach to Change framework in March 2025. Trickle maps directly to three of the five enablers: People-Led, Learning System, and Process Rigour. Trickle is cited as an example of digital tools supporting NHS staff wellbeing and engagement in the Scottish Government Future Medical Workforce Project Phase 1 Report.
• NHS ScotlandflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerMultiple NHS boards including NHS Lothian, NHS Lanarkshire, NHS Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust, and Scottish NHS Acute Medical Unit use Trickle for staff engagement. NHS Lanarkshire Women's Services extended use of Trickle to support engagement around strategy development, structural integration programme, neonatal service redesign, and anticipated Healthcare Improvement Scotland inspection. NHS Lanarkshire commissioned seven further Sprints across the organisation.

Scale indicators13 records

Recent moves4 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Culture Amp: Employee engagement and performance platform serving mid-market and enterprise. Trickle's FAQ explicitly positions against Culture Amp, making it the closest direct peer in employee voice/engagement SaaS, though Culture Amp focuses more on survey/analytics than on Trickle's action-resolution lifecycle.
• Workday Peakon Employee Voice: Enterprise employee listening platform (acquired by Workday). Cited directly in Trickle's FAQ as a comparison point; both target continuous employee feedback, though Peakon is sold as a Workday-native analytics product rather than a Sprint-based action tool.
• Lattice: Employee engagement and performance management SaaS targeting mid-market and enterprise. Overlaps with Trickle on engagement/sentiment features while extending into performance reviews, OKRs, and growth tooling.
• 15Five: Continuous employee performance and engagement platform featuring pulse surveys, recognition, and manager check-ins. Comparable to Trickle in targeting people leaders with engagement feedback loops, though 15Five's emphasis is on weekly reviews and recognition rather than issue resolution.
• Officevibe: SMB-focused employee engagement platform (acquired by Workday) offering pulse surveys and anonymous feedback. Comparable in targeting frontline and mid-market teams with lightweight engagement tooling, though positioned downstream of Workday's enterprise stack.
• TINYpulse: Employee pulse survey and anonymous feedback tool for SMB and mid-market. Overlaps with Trickle's MoodSense and Trickles mechanics, though TINYpulse focuses on survey analytics rather than issue-to-resolution workflows.

Broad incumbents

• Microsoft Viva Glint: Enterprise employee engagement and survey tool within Microsoft Viva (formerly Glint, acquired from LinkedIn). A broad incumbent bundled into Microsoft 365, posing platform-pricing risk to Trickle especially inside Microsoft-centric NHS and enterprise tenants.
• Microsoft Viva Engage: Microsoft Viva's employee community and feedback module (built on acquired Yammer). Directly adjacent to Trickle's purpose-built engagement model, and ships natively inside Microsoft Teams - the same surface where Trickle is embedded.
• Qualtrics Employee Experience: Enterprise experience management suite (now part of Silver Lake/CPPIB ownership) covering employee engagement, EX, and 360 reviews. A broad incumbent in the same buyer category as Trickle but operating across the full XM stack rather than frontline action loops.

Emerging players

• Waggl: Crowdsourced employee feedback platform that surfaces and prioritises issues through voting. Closely comparable to Trickle's "Trickles" mechanic of raising ideas and ranking them by impact, though Waggl lacks the Champion/issue-resolution lifecycle.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/trickleworks

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds2 records

Investors4 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Trickle