RefMe wins best British mobile startup at MWC with its free student referencing app
The company, which allows students to generate citations, reference lists and bibliographies with its free mobile and web tool, was awarded the prize at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona today after judges evaluated a selection of finalists based on their traction/user base, revenue growth and innovation.
RefMe claims to have gained half a million users in eight months, overtaking Spotify and eBay in the download charts and growing faster than Twitter and Pinterest did in their first years.
The app allows students and academics to reference their work in the style of their choice by scanning a barcode on a book or journal, copying a pasting a hyperlink or searching for the publication manually. This data is then saved and synced in the cloud so it can be accessed across multiple devices.
RefMe CEO and cofounder Tom Hatton was presented the award by Ed Vaizey, the UK minister culture and the digital economy.
"We're over the moon," Hatton said. "It's an amazing feeling to see the technology you've worked so hard to build, be used by so many people, in such a short amount of time."
Last year, Hatton told Techworld that he had a million ideas that he wanted to pursue before settling on RefMe.
The entrepreneur claims he was the first person ever to deliver a takeaway using a drone - something he did through his last company.
"I built my own digital agency doing weird stuff," he said. "We delivered a pizza for Dominos. You may have heard of The Domicopteror the Pepperdroni."
The RefMe app is available to download on iOS and Android from the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store respectively.
Finalists
Karisma Kidz - Helping young children with emotional intelligence through toys and games
Bablyon - Integrated digital healthcare service in your pocket
Stylect - Tinder for women's shoes
Verticly - An online to offline platform that connects brands and retailers one-to-one to mobile consumers from any advert to instore purchase
Moni Technologies - Mobile money transfer platform that enables its users to transfer funds from their bank account directly into that of a recipient
Braci - A smart ear that listens to the sounds around you and turns sounds into visual and sensory alerts