The Challenge
As Brompton expanded globally and increasingly became an omni-channel business, the need for a unified approach to technology became impossible to ignore. Brompton had been working with multiple third-party agencies, each managing a different piece of the tech ecosystem: a once manageable arrangement that was now creating friction. Decisions took too long, quality varied between suppliers, and no single team had a complete picture of how everything connected.
CTO Oliver Boardman saw the opportunity clearly: move away from the fragmented agency model and build a dedicated in-house team with full ownership of the product. The challenge was doing it without losing momentum.
Finance was facing its own version of the same problem. When Tom Champion joined as CFO, he found a business navigating rapid global expansion: multi-entity reporting, evolving ERP systems, cash-flow management across markets, with none of the structure that scale demanded.
What both leaders were looking for was the same thing: not more hands, but a team that could take real ownership, wherever the gap showed up.
The Solution
Brompton chose Gapstars following a competitive RFP process, having also considered building a UK-based team. What sealed it was values alignment and a compelling offer: a dedicated Brompton team in Sri Lanka, without the overhead of setting up their own Colombo office.
The team started with three engineers in 2024, embedded directly into Brompton’s product development and IT transformation work, in a dedicated Brompton-branded environment. Gapstars placed high-calibre candidates for the all roles and created a dedicated Brompton-branded environment in Sri Lanka from day one, crucial for team identity and a sense of ownership.
The first real test came early: transitioning critical agency-managed work to the new in-house team within three months. The Sri Lanka team absorbed complex codebases, deciphered years of scattered architectural decisions across multiple suppliers, and took full ownership of the product portfolio without missing a delivery commitment. By late 2025, the team had grown from 3 to 13 engineers spanning back-end, front-end and QA.
Emboldened by that result, Brompton tested whether the embedded model could work for Finance too. The first hire, a Manager for Credit Control, was the test; a second hire, a Finance Manager, was the confirmation. Gapstars assessed candidates for cultural alignment as well as technical capability – the first recruit brought seven years from LSEG, managing a team of 21 across 16 entities and 5,000+ clients.
The quality of the CVs and interviews genuinely surprised the team.
Tom ChampionChief Financial Officer, Brompton Bicycle
The process was fast, transparent and structured, taking time to understand both the candidate and Brompton’s operational context. A second hire followed shortly after.
Impact & Results
From Black Box to Full Ownership
When the Sri Lanka team took over from the agencies, they didn’t just pick up where others left off. They revealed what the agency model had concealed. Inconsistencies and scattered implementations, accumulated across multiple suppliers over years, became visible for the first time. The team identified the technical debt, owned it, and started fixing it. The cultural integration went beyond the code, too, and the team brought the same ambition as their UK counterparts, with genuine investment in the product and in their own development rather than an offshore mentality of task execution.
We've moved from renting expertise to owning our craft. Now comes the rare privilege: the space to build it right, not just build it fast.
Kamil StepienHead of Software, Brompton Bicycle
Oliver Boardman summed up where things stand: “2025 was about building a great team with Gapstars and establishing the engineering practices needed to support a growing global business. In 2026, that investment translated into faster delivery. Our new Partner Platform launched in just four months. Today, our partnership with Gapstars continues to accelerate both delivery and quality through talented people, strong engineering discipline and the practical application of AI.”
Finance Capability That Actually Moves the Needle
The Finance team’s contribution goes well beyond headcount. The credit control function is being rebuilt with automation and process improvements drawn from world-class financial institutions, reducing turnaround times and bringing structured rigour to Brompton’s global operations. Bank reconciliations, credit limit evaluations, month-end processes and ERP system management are all handled with a mindset of continuous improvement, not just keeping the lights on. Time zone alignment with Asia – where more than half of Brompton’s business now originates – adds genuine operational value on top of talent quality.
Seizing the AI Opportunity
As the Finance team found its feet, Brompton was already looking at the next opportunity: AI. Rather than catch up to the rapid advances reshaping how businesses operate, Brompton wanted to get ahead of them. Gapstars embedded a specialist to work alongside Brompton’s Head of AI, Alex Harling, on the pre-launch strategy and rollout of Microsoft Copilot across around 100 employees, helping translate what AI can do into meaningful changes in day-to-day work.
It’s the clearest signal yet of how the partnership has matured: what began as a solution to a specific engineering problem has grown into a trusted model for building capability wherever Brompton needs it: technology, finance, or the frontier of what comes next.
Culture & Team Dynamics
Any company thrives on the synergy of its people. For Brompton and Gapstars, the partnership was never just about placing talent, it was about building a team that reflects both brands.
In October 2025, Brompton’s full leadership team – CFO Tom Champion, CTO Oliver Boardman and Head of Software Kamil Stepien – visited Gapstars Sri Lanka within days of each other. Working sessions and honest conversations gave them a clear picture of what had been built: not a satellite office of coders, but a professional environment, a motivated team, and a culture that felt like a natural extension of Brompton’s own.
Gapstars isn’t just recruitment. It’s a professional environment that mirrors our premium brand. The office is modern and fresh; it fits who we are. We’re a premium bike company, and we want to work with partners who take things seriously. Gapstars has built an environment that mirrors what we create at Brompton: professional yet human.
Tom ChampionChief Financial Officer, Brompton Bicycle
Brompton’s brand is unusual in how deeply the community runs through everything it does. Tom drew a direct line between that ethos and why Gapstars felt right: “Brompton is very much about community. That same idea carried into how we chose Gapstars.” The Friday drinks, the pool tables, the sense of belonging at the Colombo office weren’t just perks, they were cultural signals that aligned with what Brompton values.
The collaboration is built on shared principles: every meeting has purpose and clear outcomes, technical standards are identical across both geographies, and psychological safety extends equally across borders.
Perhaps the most meaningful result of the partnership is how clearly it validates how Brompton saw its Sri Lanka team from the outset: not a resource gap filled, but leaders and potential decision-makers who are genuinely part of the business. When a resignation occurred on the tech team, Gapstars arranged four strong candidate interviews within a single week, letting Brompton secure a replacement while keeping the departing engineer available for handover, a speed Oliver Boardman noted would have been impossible through traditional UK recruitment.
What our clients think
Gapstars has proven itself, not only through talent quality but through the professionalism of the environment you’ve built. We build around the community. That is why the partnership felt right.
Tom ChampionChief Financial Officer, Brompton Bicycle
What our employees think
The culture here is really open. Everyone's ready to listen to new ideas, no matter where they come from. Between the sports, the gym, the massages, it doesn't feel like just a workplace.
Kasun SandeepaCommercial Finance Analyst, Brompton Bicycle
About Gapstars
Gapstars embeds high-performing engineering and finance teams into Europe’s fast-scaling companies. With talent hubs in Sri Lanka and Portugal, we’re home to 300+ Stars who turn remote talent into performance-driving extensions of our partners’ businesses. From shipping scalable software to owning year-end accounts, our teams deliver work that shapes the future of the companies we serve.
Visit gapstars.net or reach out to us via [email protected] for more information.
