Draft:Tribepad
| Type | Private company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Recruitment software |
| Founded | May 6, 2008 |
| Founder | Dean Sadler |
| Headquarters | , England, United Kingdom |
| Key people | Neil Armstrong (chief executive) Dean Sadler (non-executive director) |
| Products | Applicant tracking system, talent acquisition software |
Tribepad (legally Tribepad Ltd) is a British recruitment technology company based in Sheffield, England. Founded in 2008, it develops applicant tracking system (ATS) and talent acquisition software,[1] used by employers including Tesco, NHS Professionals and Subway.[2] In 2025 the company became a certified B Corporation.[3]
History
[edit]Tribepad was founded in Sheffield on 6 May 2008 by Dean Sadler, a former chief technology officer of the internet service provider Plusnet, along with co-founders including Alexis Twigg and Dan Kirkland.[4][2][5] At Plusnet, Sadler had written the company's billing and CRM platform and helped grow the business from a handful of staff to more than 700 employees before its sale to BT Group.[6] The new venture initially focused on video interviewing and social hiring technology; a contract to help G4S simplify its international recruitment system later pushed it toward building a full applicant tracking system, which became its core product.[4]
Sadler led a management buyout of the company in July 2016 after a disagreement among the founders over its future direction, and the enlarged management team expanded the workforce beyond its largely technical base into sales, marketing and account management.[7]
BGF, a growth capital firm, invested £12 million in the business in February 2023; co-founders Alexis Twigg and Dan Kirkland stepped down as part of the deal.[2][8]
Neil Armstrong, previously chief commercial officer, succeeded Sadler as chief executive in July 2025, with Sadler moving into a non-executive role; the company says revenue grew from around £1 million to nearly £7 million during Armstrong's time in the commercial role.[1] The same month, Tribepad was certified as a B Corporation, recording a B Impact Assessment score of 90.6 against a median of 50.9 for assessed businesses generally.[3]
Two months later, in September 2025, the company became a founding member of the Association of RecTech Providers (ARTP), an industry body backed by the UK government and the Better Hiring Institute.[9]
Platform
[edit]Tribepad's core product is an applicant tracking and talent acquisition platform.[10] According to the company, its dashboard gives recruiters an overview of job statistics, scheduled interviews and onboarding workflows, and the platform includes modules for candidate sourcing, a careers site builder, candidate screening, CRM and talent pooling, onboarding and reporting.[10][11] Screening questionnaires can be configured to automatically shortlist or reject candidates who score above or below a set threshold,[12] and independent user reviews describe a visual pipeline for tracking vacancies and applicants through each stage of the hiring process.[13]
Some of these modules come from outside partners rather than being built in-house. Video screening is handled by the specialist provider Willo, letting candidates record responses to interview questions asynchronously.[14] Identity and background checks, including UK Right to Work verification and Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks, are provided through TrustID.[15] Psychometric candidate assessments covering numerical reasoning, verbal reasoning and workplace personality come from Test Partnership.[16]
Tribepad launched an artificial-intelligence-enabled feature called Sidekick in November 2025, aimed at speeding up candidate screening and addressing candidate mistrust of AI-driven hiring decisions.[a][17] The feature received an independent AI assurance accreditation from Warden AI the following year.[18]
Awards and recognition
[edit]Tribepad won the SaaS Company of the Year award at the Prolific North Tech Awards 2021 and Tech Company of the Year (Medium) at the 2025 awards.[19][20] Working with Staffordshire County Council, it won Most Effective Employer Brand Development and Candidate Experience at the Recruiter Awards 2024.[21] Its partnership with West Midlands Employers (WME) has also been recognised: Best Supplier Partnership at the 2025 Talent Labs Awards, followed in 2026 by Best Partnership/Collaboration at the PPMA Excellence in People Management Awards and a Bronze in the Customer Experience category at the IHR Supplier Awards.[22][23] The company also states that it won the ATS for Enterprises category, and, with Horton Housing, the ATS for SMEs category, at the 2026 IHR Supplier Awards.[24]
References
[edit]- 1 2 Symcox, Jonathan (1 July 2025). "Neil Armstrong to succeed Dean Sadler as Tribepad CEO". BusinessCloud. Retrieved 24 September 2026.
- 1 2 3 Symcox, Jonathan (1 February 2023). "£12m backing for talent acquisition platform Tribepad". BusinessCloud. Retrieved 24 September 2026.
- 1 2 "Tribepad Ltd". B Corporation. Retrieved 24 September 2026.
- 1 2 "Company spotlight: TribePad". Sheffield Digital. Retrieved 24 September 2026.
- ↑ "TRIBEPAD LTD - Filing history". Companies House. Retrieved 24 September 2026.
- ↑ "What I've Learnt: Dean Sadler, CEO and Co-founder at TribePad". Prolific North. Retrieved 24 September 2026.
- ↑ "'We haven't looked back since MBO'". BusinessCloud. 11 April 2019. Retrieved 24 September 2026.
- ↑ "Sheffield software firm Tribepad set to soar on £12m investment". The Star. Retrieved 24 September 2026.
- ↑ "Association of RecTech Providers (ARTP) membership". Better Hiring Institute. Retrieved 24 September 2026.
- 1 2 "Applicant Tracking System for Faster, Fairer Hiring". Tribepad. Retrieved 24 September 2026.
- ↑ "An introduction to the Dashboard". Tribepad. Retrieved 24 September 2026.
- ↑ "Pre-screening questionnaires". Tribepad. Retrieved 24 September 2026.
- ↑ "Tribepad Applicant Tracking System Reviews". PeerSpot. Retrieved 24 September 2026.
- ↑ "Video Screening & Video Interviews Platform". Tribepad. Retrieved 24 September 2026.
- ↑ "Tribepad Checks: digital identity checks with TrustID". Tribepad. Retrieved 24 September 2026.
- ↑ "Candidate assessment tests with Tribepad Assessments". Tribepad. Retrieved 24 September 2026.
- ↑ Salmon, Kaleah (12 November 2025). "Tribepad launches AI tool to boost fairness & trust in hiring". IT Brief UK. Retrieved 24 September 2026.
- ↑ "New to the Market: 4-8 May 2026". Recruiter. May 2026. Retrieved 24 September 2026.
- ↑ "The Prolific North Tech Awards 2021: The Winners". Prolific North. Retrieved 24 September 2026.
- ↑ "Prolific North Tech Awards 2025: Full list of winners driving innovation across the north". Prolific North. Retrieved 24 September 2026.
- ↑ "Winners announced at Recruiter Awards 2024". Recruiter. September 2024. Retrieved 24 September 2026.
- ↑ Whitby, Katrina (17 June 2025). "Award-winning partnership: How collaboration is powering public sector recruitment transformation". West Midlands Employers. Retrieved 24 September 2026.
- ↑ "West Midlands Employers celebrates multiple national award wins for its resourcing services". West Midlands Employers. 30 April 2026. Retrieved 24 September 2026.
- ↑ "Industry Awards & Recognition". Tribepad. Retrieved 24 September 2026.
- ↑ Company-commissioned research cited in the launch coverage found that 61% of surveyed candidates believed "cultural fit" was often used to justify unfair hiring decisions, and that a third of candidates did not fully trust either human recruiters or AI in hiring.