After record entries from over 30 countries and scrutiny by an independent panel of judges consisting of over 40 journalists, analysts, accelerators and VCs from around the globe, the 2015 Meffys finalists have been revealed.

The ultimate winners will be announced on October 19th 2015 in at a Gala Dinner taking place in London,  hosted by the legendary musician, beat-boxer and musical mastermind, Beardyman.

In the run up to the event we will be profiling the finalists in the different categories – Innovation Awards, Market Awards, Sector Awards. Today its the turn of the Innovation Award for Education, highlighting the impact that mobile has on education resources and services, in particular the apps and services that improve access, efficiency and flexibility to all the areas that mLearning represents.

Kantoo Mandarin is an interactive multimedia program developed to teach Mandarin to Brazilians. It was launched in partnership VIVO, Brazil´s largest telephone/mobile operator with over 80 million users.

Developed in podcasts chapters, the program tells the story of two characters and their daily cultural interactions in China, set the background to learn Mandarin in a meaningful and fun way.  With a new chapter every three days and daily SMS messages and quizzes, users are given a daily dose of Chinese culture and language.  Users can access a voice portal at any time, listen to podcast lessons and practice pronunciation in a vocabulary session.  Users can also record and playback their own pronunciation. The App (iOS/Android) contains all podcast lessons, quizzes and pronunciation exercises, plus a very special exercise session with endless opportunities for testing vocabulary acquisition.

Mobile Academy is the first premium all-you-can-learn service with content specifically created for mobile use. It is live with 118 carriers around the globe and operates as a Mobile Academy-branded or carrier co-branded service.

Available in more than 17 languages, the service allows subscribers to gain critical skills to improve all aspects of their lives: career, academic knowledge, money management, language, health and more, offering courses specifically designed for learning-on-the-go (maximum learning in short periods of time).  Each course comes with user tests and other guidance points (do’s and don’ts, tips).  Since its launch, more than 1.2 Millions paying subscribers are using the Mobile Academy through its browser-based interface that is available for both feature phones and smartphones. In addition, smartphone users have complimentary access to Apps that allow for offline learning and an even smoother educational experience.

Special iApps is UK based social enterprise whose initiative is to create accessible apps for disabled children. Its first App was launched in September 2011 in eight languages with the help of volunteers around the world. Today it has been extended to 22 languages and has continually been updated and enhanced with feedback and input from parents and professionals.

The Special iApps portfolio has been extended to include a range of Apps that support literacy, numeracy and memory activities. Each is designed to cater for children with learning difficulties and poor fine motor skills, especially children with Down syndrome, autism and cerebral palsy. The designs are clear and uncluttered without advertising and provide errorless learning for children and even adults who have learning difficulties.

Clarocursos is a m-learning platform available in 17 LatAm countries in a partnership with America Movil, bringing a low cost learning solution to more than 34 million people since it launched in 2013.  Students are able to learn, from a rich and valuable content, across a wide range of subjects, from languages to cooking, developing professional and personal skills that can truly change their lives.

Clarocursos is based on a cloud solution, enabling users to have a unique 360º experience whenever and wherever they like, delivering a user-centred service through SMS, Mobile Web, Web and App. On a daily basis, users receive a SMS with the class of the day and are able to go to a website or an App to access multimedia content on audio, video and exercises for a long term learning experience. Content comes from partnerships with relevant providers as well as local celebrities and specialists on their area of study.

Worldreader Mobile (WRM) is a mobile e-reader and library application optimized for inexpensive mobile phones to reach children, families and adults on devices they already own. Designed to work with browsers using extreme compression technology, it offers a fast and data-light reading experience – even in areas with 2G coverage (85% of the world population lives within the area of 2G coverage according to GSMA).

The design of WRM enables people, regardless of the mobile device they own, to have an excellent and affordable reading experience (i.e. the cost to read the equivalent of a 300-page print book on Worldreader is c. $0.08 ). Moreover, Worldreader Mobile enables users to save books to their phones for reading when offline.  With over 18,000 titles in 43 languages, the WRM library covers the spectrum of literacy, from those learning to read, to those reading to learn, to those reading for pleasure. Educational titles complement leveled early-grade readers for our youngest readers, to thrillers and romance novels for some of our oldest.

The winners will be announced at a glittering Gala Dinner taking place on 19th October at the prestigious Rosewood Hotel – a stunning 5 star venue in the heart of the city.

Tickets are on sale now – be sure to book your VIP table for a front row seat and join the who’s who of the mobile industry at this year’s celebration.