ScotlandIS celebrated 25 years as the Scottish tech ecosystem’s membership and cluster management organisation with its 15th annual Digital Tech Awards. 

With a theme of birthday, the night at the Radisson Blu in Glasgow served as a celebration not just of the esteemed winners representing Scotland’s best and brightest in the tech sector, but also as an opportunity to honour the longstanding work of ScotlandIS in bolstering Scotland’s tech industry. 

The awards revered a variety of sectors, from data and AI, fintech and managed services, to engineering and education. The event highlighted the diversity of work in the Scottish tech ecosystem. 

With over 100 entrants, ScotlandIS’s esteemed judges diligently narrowed the selection to just 12 winners, representing cybersecurity, AI, and data excellence.

“Every year it does get harder to select the winners from the amazing array of applications,” Karen Meechan, CEO of ScotlandIS, said.

“That’s 25 years of supporting and championing Scotland’s technology industry. For quarter of a century we have stood alongside Scotland’s tech ecosystem, promoting innovation. From internet adoption, to the space tech, AI, and fintech revolutions, we have gone from strength to strength, and that is thanks to everyone in this room,” she added.

This year’s awards included longstanding categories such as tech for good, cyber excellence, and tech rising star, as well as new selections, including Outstanding Managed Service Provider. 

This first-time category went to Lugo, which was recognised for its people-focused leadership and impactful customer service innovations. 

Highlighting AI’s influence in the tech sphere, ScotlandIS honoured Inicio AI, a female-led fintech startup which won the award for Service Innovation for its AI training tool which aids businesses in money management. 

“You can probably tell from my accent that we originate a bit further down South, but the Scottish system has been so supportive of us so we decided to make it our home,” Rachel Curtis, Inicio AI said upon receiving the award.

DeepMiner won the Data Trailblazer award, and CEO Duncan Hart thanked his customers, which include the Scottish government, “for taking us on when our technology was cutting edge, and it still is cutting edge.”

Recognising the importance of employee wellbeing and retention, ScotlandIS awarded the prize for Best Wellbeing at Work to Sopra Steria, a consulting and software development company. The firm won for its Employee Trust Fund that was first started in 1981, which supports employees going through hardship. 

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The award for Digital Tech Rising Star went to Cieran Smith, an infrastructure engineer at KubeNet.

The full list of winners is as follows: 

• Tech for Good – 1partCarbon
• Product Innovation – British Youth International College
• Service Innovation – Inicio AI
• Best Wellbeing at Work – Sopra Steria 
• Data Trailblazer – DeepMiner
• Cyber Excellence – PACE Anti-Piracy 
• Public Sector Innovation – Improvement Service
• Outstanding IT Managed Service Provider – Lugo
• Digital Tech Rising Star – Cieran Smith, KubeNet 
• Digital Tech Business of the Year: Start-Up  – CAVU Aerospace UK 
• Digital Tech Business of the Year: Scale-Up – British Youth International College
• Digital Tech Business of the Year: Enterprise – Kick ICT 

The awards were supported by category sponsors including including Techscaler, Scottish Government National Cyber Resilience Unit, Sopra Steria, Pulsant, Futurescot,  KAL ATM Software, Lloyds Banking Group, Highground and Dayshape.