The Happiness Index

What The Happiness Index does

The Happiness Index is a London-headquartered SaaS company, founded in 2014, that operates an employee engagement and happiness measurement platform built on a proprietary neuroscience methodology. The core platform delivers 20+ pre-built surveys across the employee lifecycle (onboarding, cultural assessment, wellbeing, mental health, ESG, racial equity, recognition, eNPS, mergers & acquisitions, exit, etc.) underpinned by eight core themes mapped to four brain systems (instinctive, emotional, reflective, rational). A Global Benchmark module compares customer data against 50 million+ data points drawn from 170+ countries, which the company positions as a primary differentiator versus conventional employee listening tools.

The product suite is structured into three layers: (1) the Engagement Platform and survey library as the core SaaS offering, (2) the Global Benchmark and Global Workplace Happiness Report for thought leadership and data monetisation, and (3) a consultancy portfolio comprising Culture Consultancy, Action AI (AI-assisted action planning), Thrive L&D (leadership development programme), and Perform ROI (financial-impact modelling). AI/ML deployment is limited to sentiment analysis, word clouds, and the Action AI service.

Revenue is generated through annual or multi-year platform subscriptions (auto-renewing in 12-month terms), consultancy services sold alongside subscriptions, and a freemium 2-month benchmark trial for up to 250 employees designed to drive conversion to paid engagements. Go-to-market is dual-motion: enterprise sales-led via consultation and demo requests supported by UK-based account managers, combined with a product-led growth entry point through the free benchmark trial. Pricing is not publicly disclosed. The company is privately held, has raised approximately $4.2M cumulatively across four disclosed funding rounds (2016, 2021, 2022 via Seedrs, and 2023), and reports a headcount of 11-50 employees with co-founders Matt Phelan (Co-CEO) and Tony Latter, plus Head of Neuroscience Clive Hyland leading the methodology.

Name

The Happiness Index

Legal name

The Happiness Index Ltd

Website

https://thehappinessindex.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2014

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

The Happiness Index is a London-based SaaS platform that helps enterprise and mid-market organisations measure employee engagement and happiness through neuroscience-backed surveys and a global benchmark database spanning 170+ countries.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Employee Engagement Software

NAICS

Human Resources Consulting Services (541612), Marketing Research and Public Opinion Polling (541910)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Management Consulting Services (8742)

akta.pro primary industry

Performance Management & OKRs (BPACAPAF)

Keywords

• Employee engagement software
• Culture measurement platform
• Workplace happiness analytics
• Employee survey platform
• People analytics software

Headquarters

HQ city

London

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

Revenue model

1. Platform Subscription: Annual or multi-year subscription for access to the engagement platform, surveys, benchmarking tools, and analytics dashboard. Auto-renews on renewal date for 12-month periods unless cancelled 30 days prior.
2. Consultancy Services: Expert consulting services including Action AI, Thrive L&D (leadership training), and Perform ROI (demonstrating HR impact on business outcomes). Provided by neuroscience experts and organizational change coaches.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

The Happiness Index provides a neuroscience-based employee engagement and happiness measurement platform that combines 20+ pre-built surveys, a global benchmark database of 50 million+ data points across 170+ countries, and AI-powered analytics. The company sells SaaS subscriptions to its engagement platform alongside expert consultancy services (Action AI, Thrive L&D, Perform ROI) that help organisations link culture to commercial performance outcomes.

Product overview

The Happiness Index is an employee engagement and happiness platform combining neuroscience-backed surveys with global benchmarking and performance-culture consultancy. The core offering is the Engagement Platform, which delivers 20+ pre-built surveys in 15 languages covering the entire employee lifecycle (onboarding, cultural assessment, wellbeing, mental health, ESG, exit, eNPS, etc.). These surveys are underpinned by a proprietary neuroscience methodology measuring eight core themes linked to four brain systems (Instinctive, Emotional, Reflective, Rational). Global Benchmarking compares organisations against 50 million+ data points across 170+ countries. The consultancy portfolio includes Action AI (AI-powered rapid action planning), Thrive L&D (leadership development programme), and Perform ROI (ROI modelling consultancy). Supporting resources include the annual Global Workplace Happiness Report, ROI Calculator tool, and published books covering methodology and business case guidance.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Action AI: Consultancy service blending AI with consulting expertise to build informed, scalable solutions for turning employee feedback into actionable impact.
• Thrive L&D
• Perform ROI

Products and services

• Engagement Platform The primary SaaS platform delivering real-time employee engagement surveys and cultural health monitoring for HR and people teams in enterprise and mid-market organisations. Provides actionable insights into how employees think and feel, with benchmarking, trend analysis, and AI-powered analytics across the entire employee lifecycle.
• Global Benchmark Standalone benchmarking offering that compares an organisation's culture against 50 million+ data points across 170+ countries. Available as a free 2-month trial for up to 250 employees, and used by enterprises and mid-market organisations to contextualise cultural data and identify improvement areas.
• Culture Consultancy Performance-culture consultancy turning engagement platform insights into business action. Expert consultants work with enterprise and mid-market clients to build cultures that boost performance across revenue, profit, customer retention, and other measurable business outcomes.
• Action AI AI-powered consultancy service that transforms employee feedback into rapid, scalable action plans. Blends consulting expertise with AI analysis to build stakeholder consensus on priorities and deliver measurable outcomes quickly for HR and people leaders.
• Thrive L&D Leadership and development programme designed for senior managers, equipping them to lead effectively by focusing on 24 fundamental universal human needs that foster workplace engagement and happiness. Sold as a structured learning programme to enterprise and mid-market clients.
• Perform ROI Consultancy service that models the impact of people initiatives on business outcomes, demonstrating ROI across financial performance, profitability, revenue, customer metrics, employee retention, and operational efficiency for HR and business leaders.
• Global Workplace Happiness Report Annual research report analysing global workplace happiness trends using data from millions of employees across multiple countries. Distributed to HR leaders and used as a thought leadership asset supporting sponsorship and lead generation.

Quantifiable outcome

• eNPS increase of 55% over 3 years (from 18.6 to 28.8 average)
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers23 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability3 records

Feature5 records

Scale indicators10 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights7 records

Direct peers

• Culture Amp: Direct competitor offering an employee engagement and performance platform with survey tools, analytics, and people science methodology, serving similar enterprise and mid-market HR buyers globally.
• Workday Peakon Employee Voice: Direct competitor providing an employee listening platform with real-time engagement surveys, benchmarking, and action planning, now backed by Workday's enterprise HR suite.
• Microsoft Viva Glint: Direct competitor in the enterprise engagement survey space, leveraging Microsoft's distribution and integration with Teams/Outlook to deliver engagement analytics to large organisations.
• Lattice: Employee engagement and performance management platform with surveys, goals, and reviews, serving a similar mid-market and enterprise buyer profile with overlapping engagement functionality.
• 15Five: Employee engagement and performance platform combining pulse surveys, manager check-ins, and OKRs, competing for the same HR technology buyer as The Happiness Index.
• Officevibe: Pulse survey and employee feedback tool focused on SMB and mid-market teams, offering anonymous surveys and engagement scoring comparable to The Happiness Index's lighter-weight offering.
• TinyPulse: Employee engagement platform using anonymous pulse surveys and benchmarks, competing for similar mid-market HR leaders evaluating lightweight engagement tools.

Broad incumbents

• Gallup: Long-established incumbent in employee engagement measurement with the Q12 framework and a large global research base, competing with The Happiness Index for enterprise HR analytics budgets.
• Qualtrics (Employee Experience): Broader experience management platform with an EmployeeXM product line covering engagement, pulse, and 360 surveys, competing for enterprise HR analytics spend against specialist engagement vendors.

Emerging players

• Leapsome: Emerging European HR platform combining engagement surveys, performance reviews, and learning, offering partial overlap with The Happiness Index's engagement and consultancy-led positioning.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeopen.spotify.com/show/7h6wCWnjsgOIZSR6h0DKbq
• Xx.com/happinessindex
• Facebookfacebook.com/happinessindex1
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/3766632

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles10 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds4 records

Investors1 record

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 The Happiness Index