What Helpful Digital does

Helpful Digital is a privately held UK-based digital communications and crisis preparedness firm founded in 2010, operating across the United Kingdom, United States, and Australia with offices in Poole, London, Denver, and Bondi Junction. The legal entities Helpful Technology Ltd (7165965) and Social Simulator Ltd (8228029) trade collectively as Helpful Digital Group (10487998). The company serves government agencies, financial services firms, and enterprise clients across energy, aviation, emergency management, beauty, retail, and sports sectors, with notable clients including UK Government departments (via Crown Commercial Service framework), Bank of England, Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Royal Air Force, L'Oréal, and Queensland Government.

The company's core technology consists of two proprietary browser-based platforms: Social Simulator, a premier crisis simulation platform featuring over 1,000 simulated media brand and social media replicas (X, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, forums, chat, social intranets) with real-time adaptive scripting managed by exercise controllers; and Crisis90, a workshop platform for crisis, customer care, and corporate communications training with timed team tasks and phase-based scenarios. A third offering, Digital Action Plan, is an online learning platform for digital skills training and social video content creation. Scenario localisation placeholders enable customisation across regions and brands, and white-label deployment allows agencies and consultancies to deliver simulations under their own branding.

Helpful Digital monetises through a mix of recurring platform subscriptions (Crisis90), professional services for scenario design, delivery, and post-exercise analysis (Social Simulator), corporate communications training and coaching, and white-label platform licensing. Go-to-market is primarily direct enterprise sales with virtual and in-person delivery, augmented by structured public sector procurement via the UK Crown Commercial Service G-Cloud framework. Pricing is not publicly disclosed and is quote-based following demo requests. The firm is bootstrapped with no external funding rounds recorded.

Name

Helpful Digital

Legal name

Helpful Technology Ltd and Social Simulator Ltd

Website

https://helpfuldigital.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2010

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Helpful Digital is a bootstrapped UK-founded (2010) digital communications and crisis preparedness firm that delivers proprietary browser-based crisis simulation platforms (Social Simulator, Crisis90) and training services to government agencies, financial institutions, and enterprise clients across the UK, US, and Australia.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Crisis Simulation Software

NAICS

Computer Training (611420), Educational Support Services (611710), Custom Computer Programming Services (541511)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Computer Programming Services (7371), Communications Services, Nec (4899)

akta.pro primary industry

Crisis Management & Communications Support (Mass Notification) (BPABANAF)

akta.pro secondary industry

Training Delivery Services (Onsite/Virtual Instruction, Workshops, Coaching) (BPAEANAN)

Keywords

• Crisis simulation software
• Digital communications training
• Crisis preparedness exercises
• Corporate communications coaching
• Social media strategy

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices4 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Crisis90 Training Platform: Browser-based crisis and customer care training workshop platform, offered as a service with session-based training exercises.
2. Social Simulator Crisis Simulations: Premium crisis simulation exercises delivered via proprietary platform, including scenario design, scripting, delivery, and post-exercise analysis with benchmarking reports.
3. Digital Communications Training: Training and coaching services for corporate communications skills, delivered online or in-person, including workshops and coaching programs.
4. White-label Platform Licensing: White-label deployment of Social Simulator platform for communications agencies and management consultancies to test their own clients' crisis preparedness.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Helpful Digital provides browser-based crisis simulation software (Social Simulator and Crisis90) and digital communications training services to government agencies, financial services, energy, aviation, retail, and emergency management organisations. The company delivers scenario-based workshops, coaching, and post-exercise analysis both online and in-person, enabling clients to build practical crisis response and corporate communications capability.

Product overview

Helpful Digital offers a suite of digital communications and crisis preparedness products. The portfolio consists of three main offerings: Social Simulator (a premier crisis simulation platform with over 1,000 simulated media and social media replicas for immersive exercises), Crisis90 (a browser-based workshop platform for training teams on customer care, corporate communications, and crisis preparedness through timed scenario-based tasks), and Digital Action Plan (an online learning platform for digital skills development and social video content creation). The products are designed to work independently or as complementary tools for comprehensive crisis readiness and digital communications training.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Crisis90: A browser-based workshop platform for crisis and customer care training, bringing scenarios to life with social media posts, news stories, videos, and emails for team exercises.
• Social Simulator
• Digital Action Plan

Products and services

• Social Simulator Premier crisis simulation software that delivers realistic immersive environments using a library of over 1,000 simulated media and social media brand replicas. Provides role assignment, real-time team collaboration, adaptive scenario management managed by exercise controllers, and post-exercise analysis with benchmarking reports. Designed for organisations preparing for crises such as oil spills, cyber attacks, or national emergencies.
• Crisis90 Browser-based workshop platform for crisis, customer care, and corporate communications training. Features timed team tasks, phase-based scenarios with social media posts, news stories, videos, and emails, facilitator-led discussions, and real-time collaboration, with built-in localisation placeholders for different teams, brands, or regions. Targeted at groups new to crisis handling that need a structured workshop format.
• Digital Action Plan Online learning platform that helps organisations plan and execute digital communications strategies and produce effective social video content using straightforward tools. Offered as a sub-product under the Helpful Digital portfolio.
• Digital Communications Training and Coaching Training and coaching services for corporate communications skills, digital communications strategy, social media training, and customer service, delivered online or in-person via workshops and coaching programs. Target users are communications teams in government agencies, financial services, beauty, energy, aviation, and emergency management organisations.

Quantifiable outcome

• Training enables teams to respond to crises more confidently and effectively
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers15 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Communications Agencies (White-label)coreOEM/ Whitelabel/ Licensing PartnerHelpful Digital works with the world's leading communications agencies and management consultancies to deliver crisis simulation exercises under custom branding on a white-label basis, enabling agencies to test their clients' crisis preparedness with the Social Simulator platform.
• Crown Commercial ServicecoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorApproved supplier to UK Government through G-Cloud framework and Digital Outcomes and Specialists Framework, providing digital development and crisis communications services to public sector organizations.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Everbridge: Publicly listed critical event management and mass-notification vendor whose crisis communication platform overlaps with Helpful Digital's communications and emergency-management use cases. Serves enterprise and government buyers globally with software-led solutions.
• Control Risks: Global risk consultancy offering crisis management, crisis simulation, and resilience services to corporate and government clients. Competes with Helpful Digital in cross-border resilience and crisis preparedness training, especially in financial services and energy.
• FTI Consulting (Strategic Communications segment, incl. Regester Larkin): Global professional services firm with a crisis and issues communications practice that competes with Helpful Digital for government and enterprise resilience mandates. Operates at much larger scale and bundles crisis comms with broader advisory and consulting services.
• Regester Larkin (now FTI Consulting): Crisis and issues communications consultancy (now integrated into FTI Consulting) historically competing with Helpful Digital in UK crisis simulation and resilience training for corporate and public sector clients.
• F24: European SaaS provider of crisis management, emergency notification, and governance software. Comparable buyer segments and crisis-communication tooling, with a stronger software-only delivery model versus Helpful Digital's hybrid software-plus-services offering.

Direct peers

• Crises Control: Crisis management and mass notification platform offering incident response, business continuity, and crisis communication tools to enterprises. Directly competes with Helpful Digital's white-labelable crisis communications capability.
• Resilience Guard: Resilience and business continuity consultancy offering crisis simulation exercises and training. Comparable niche positioning to Helpful Digital with a focus on exercise delivery for enterprise and public sector buyers.
• Plan B Consulting: UK-based crisis management and business continuity consultancy that delivers crisis simulation exercises and resilience training to similar enterprise and government buyers. Highly comparable service portfolio and geographic footprint to Helpful Digital.

Emerging players

• CitizenAID: Emergency preparedness training provider focused on public resilience and first-responder scenarios. Adjacent to Helpful Digital's crisis preparedness training mission but oriented toward end-user/public training rather than enterprise team simulations.
• SimsT: Netherlands-based crisis and serious-games simulation firm developing scenario-based training platforms for emergency response. Smaller and more geographically focused than Helpful Digital, with overlapping technology approach.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/helpfuldigital
• Xx.com/helpfuldigital

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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 Helpful Digital