Last night, Sarah McVittie added to Texperts’ trophy cabinet by winning the “Businesswoman of the Year” accolade at the Cambridge Evening News Business Excellence Awards. The distinguished panel adjudicating the award recognised Sarah’s recent achievements, as well as her track record in the mobile sector:

“Businesswoman of the Year was won by Sarah McVittie, co-founder and chief executive of Texperts, which underwent a £100,000 rebranding in the past year from its original name of 82ASK and has since gone from strength to strength.”

Sarah saw off some tough competition in contention for the award, which is sponsored by Cambridge’s new Grand Arcade, a major retail development in city centre that opened yesterday (27 March 2008). On winning the award, Sarah said, “I’m delighted to win this award. This is a major recognition for the accomplishments of the entire Texperts team - it’s a company I’m proud to have built, and we’ve got more innovations lined up for the future.”

The prestigious MediaGuardian Innovation Awards have come and gone, and in a tightly-fought competition, Sarah is a runner up in “Rising Star of the Year” category. Here’s what the judges had to say:

“Sarah McVittie is the founder and CEO of the Texperts, a UK-based service which lets people text in any question and have it answered within minutes. This year alone she has effectively steered her company through a complete rebrand, tripled the size of the company to 265 people in order to meet the demand and successfully raised £1.5 million of funding to take the company to the next stage.”

The event itself was great, according to Sarah, and she was glad to see other industry movers and shakers there, including SMS Text News stalwart Ewan MacLeod. All in all, being recognised at the inaugural MediaGuardian Awards is a real honour for Texperts, and a feather in Sarah’s cap.

Texperts CEO Sarah McVittie has managed to nab yet another award nomination, this time in the “Businesswoman of the Year” category of the Cambridge Evening News Business Excellence Awards.

Sarah McVittie, currently on site at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, said ” this award shortlisting is excellent news for us, and very humbling. At Texperts we are very proud of our connections to Cambridge and the region, so it’s a real honour to be nominated.”

This makes two award nominations for Sarah in 2008. She is also in contention for the “Rising Star of the Year” category of the inaugural MediaGuardian Innovation Awards.

The Cambridge Evening News Business Excellence Awards will be decided on March 27 2008. The judges are Nigel Brown OBE, chairman of the Greater Cambridge Partnership, Walter Herriot OBE, now a professor at Anglia Ruskin and also managing director of St John’s Innovation Centre.

Breaking news! Texperts CEO and one-woman army Sarah McVittie has stormed into another award short-listing, this time in the “Rising Star of the Year” category of the inaugural MediaGuardian Innovation Awards.

The panel invited nominations from MediaGuardian readers, and from the many hundreds of entries Sarah has emerged as one of the three finalists. The awards ceremony will be held at IndigO2 on March 6.

Texperts has a distinguished history of grabbing prestigious awards in a variety of categories, from innovation, to management, to HR, to cutting-edge technology. Sarah is delighted with the MediaGuardian Innovation nomination, saying “it’s a real honour to be shortlisted for the MediaGuardian award, especially in the inaugural round. At Texperts we take great pride in our track record, and I’m proud to lead this exceptional team of innovators.”

Cambridge, 29 November 2007

Last night, Texperts won the Innovative Company of the Year prize at the Real Business/CBI Growing Business Awards. This marks the second award for Texperts in 2007, who picked up a National Business Award for Best Use of Technology back in July.

The high profile awards ceremony was held at the Marriott Hotel on Grosvenor Square, and has been called “the business equivalent of the Oscars” by PM Gordon Brown. Texperts’ CEO and co-founder Sarah McVittie was presented the award by Theo Paphitis, of Dragon’s Den fame, and celebrity impressionist Rory Bremner, who compered the evening.

McVittie dedicated the award to her company’s “brilliant team of hard-working Texperts, who have all made the service such a success.” Afterward the ceremony she said,

“it has been an amazing year, where we have really been in the national spotlight. It is exciting to be at the forefront of the mobile industry and we are really starting to achieve what we always aimed for: to change the way people interact on mobile.”

McVittie promised that more innovation was on the horizon for a company with a proven track record of delivering exciting and useful new consumer-oriented services.

Texperts, operated by RE5ULT Ltd. on the 66000 shortcode, is a multi-award winning “mobile find” service that answers any question by text for £1. Founded 4 years ago, the Texperts service eliminates the need to search and instead delivers a single answer optimised for the mobile “on the go” experience. Based in Cambridge, UK and originally operating under the name 82ASK, the company recently re-branded to take its service to a wider audience. Texperts has hundreds of researchers who work world-wide, and the company has grown rapidly since its re-launch.

For more information contact the team through the contact form on the website.