HappyOrNot is a Finnish customer experience company best known for its push-button 'Smiley Terminals' that capture instant customer and employee satisfaction feedback. Founded in 2009 by Heikki Vaananen and Ville Levaniemi, the company combines its standalone feedback terminals (including the newer Smiley Touch and Smiley Wall) with a cloud-based reporting platform that translates billions of responses into actionable insights. Its terminals have been deployed in airports, retailers, healthcare facilities, and public venues across more than 130 countries, with customers including Microsoft, McDonald's, London Heathrow Airport, LinkedIn, and the UK's NHS. The company has received funding from Northzone, Verdane, and AirTree.
HappyOrNot has been acquired
This company is no longer available on our private secondary market.
Company data and valuation marks are estimates and may be incomplete, stale, erroneous, or revised.
Founded
2009
Employees
80–90
Total Funding
$39.5M
2 rounds
Verdane moved to majority ownership of HappyOrNot, buying out Northzone, AirTree, non-active founders and management shareholders.
Early investors fully exited; terms undisclosed.
Promoted Tim Waterton (CRO) to CEO, succeeding Miika Mäkitalo after his five-year tenure.
Leadership transition; limited direct secondary-market implication.
Funding data and valuation marks are estimates and may be incomplete, stale, erroneous, or revised.
Total raised $39.5M across 2 rounds
Last updated 09-30-2026
| Date | Round | Amount Raised | Valuation | Lead Investors |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 19, 2019 | Growth TechCrunch | $25M (EUR 22.6M) | — | Verdane |
| Oct 12, 2017 | Series A VentureBeat | $14.5M | — | Northzone |
Tim Waterton
CEO
Carl Holmquist
Chairman of the Board
Heikki Vaananen
Co-Founder
Ville Levaniemi
Co-Founder
Competitor list is illustrative and may be incomplete, stale, or erroneous.
Qualtrics
Enterprise experience-management platform spanning customer, employee, brand, and product feedback; taken private by Silver Lake in 2023.
Medallia
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Survicate
Targeted survey and customer-feedback tool for digital touchpoints across websites, web apps, mobile, and email.
Zonka Feedback
Customer experience and survey platform offering on-site kiosk, tablet, email, and SMS feedback for retail, hospitality, and healthcare.
Chattermill
AI-driven unified customer-intelligence platform analyzing feedback across surveys, support tickets, reviews, and chat.
NICE (CXone)
Enterprise CX and contact-center analytics suite competing in voice-of-customer and real-time satisfaction measurement.
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