Scale Up
Awards 2026
The Scale Up 2026 Awards celebrated and recognised the people, partners and stories that shaped the year through meaningful impact, strong collaboration, and steady progress.
This year, the Gapstars community played a bigger role, helping spotlight the people and stories that truly stood out.
Partner Awards
The Partner Awards celebrate the collaborations that shaped our year, recognising those who drove meaningful impact, grew with intention, and embodied our shared values.
Partner of the Year
Our highest honour was awarded to Brompton Bicycle, recognizing a partner whose collaboration, leadership, and impact have set a new benchmark for success.
Selection Method: Three partners were nominated by the global management team based on defined criteria across People & Culture, Talent Acquisition, and Account Management.
These include developer satisfaction, retention, employee engagement, eNPS, Pulse Check insights, team growth, number of hires, and quality of communication and partnership collaboration.
Final scores were determined through a combined weighting of jury evaluation (80%) and community votes (20%).
2026 Nominees:
Brompton Bicycle
RePurpose
Stekz
Innovation in Action
Celebrating a partner team that embraced change, explored new ideas, and pushed boundaries in technology and business - this year’s award was presented to Heart Internet.
Selection method: This award started with team leads and Engineering Managers, who submitted short pitches highlighting a project they’re most proud of.
Next, the team leads reviewed the pitches and shortlisted them the top three projects without being able to vote for themselves.
The Gapstars community was involved through voting, helping highlight the stories that stood out most.
The final outcome was determined through a combined result, bringing together community voting and jury review.
The Finalists for this award were:
• rePurpose Global – Built the world’s first Plastic Action Platform, turning sustainability into a measurable, scalable system
• Heart Internet – Developed a real-time, predictive protection system for modern cybersecurity challenges
• Fixico – Created an AI-powered Email-to-Quote pipeline, transforming unstructured communication into actionable data
Rising Star
Selection method: This award is informed by insights from Talent Acquisition, Delivery, and HR, based on their close collaboration and visibility across teams. These insights are reviewed by a jury, who will make the final decision.
Fastest Growing Team
Celebrating a partner who showed outstanding momentum and commitment in growing their Gapstars team this year, this award was presented to Stekz.
Selection method: This award is driven by growth data and is purely metric-based.
Product Excellence Award
This award recognises a partnership that builds products the right way, with quality, stability, and real care for the end user.
This year, it was awarded to Fixico, who through smart, connected technology are helping shape the future of automotive repair.
Green Excellence Award
The Green Excellence Award recognizes a partnership that’s making a real difference through sustainability-focused work. Whether that’s reducing waste, improving efficiency, enabling cleaner solutions, or helping shape a better future through the products they build.
This award was presented to rePurpose Global.
Community Awards
The Community Awards recognise the individuals who bring our community to life, celebrating everyday impact, shared values, and long-standing commitment.
Star of the Year
Our most prestigious community award, honouring the teammate who’s earned the admiration of colleagues across Gapstars - a true favourite who lives our values and consistently goes above and beyond in the way they show up every day.
Winner (2026): Sahan Weerakkody (Harver)
Selection: Voted by the entire Gapstars community, giving everyone a voice in spotlighting the person who inspires, uplifts, and strengthens our culture.
Long Term Legends
Recognising teammates who have reached the five-year milestone with Gapstars. This award honours long-term commitment and continued contribution across the years.
Winners (2026):
Edo van der Bas (Director- Accounts)
Viran Fernando (Pastbook)
Thilini Rathnayake (Pastbook)
Value Champion
The Value Champion awards recognise teammates who consistently bring Gapstars’ core values to life through their actions and impact. Each value – Growth, Impact, and Community – is honoured with one dedicated award, celebrating individuals who embody that value in a meaningful and sustained way.
Selection method: Nominated by Team Leads and Managers, based on consistent demonstration of the selected value.
Winners (2026):
Value Champion – Growth
Rishoni (Fixico)
Value Champion – Impact
Ryan From People and Culture
Value Champion – Community
Nabil from Talent Acquistion
