SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 01/31/13 -- Readyforce, the leading career network for college students, has acquired Umeqo, the MIT student-built, student-run platform that connects Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) students with prospective employers. With Umeqo, Readyforce acquires a complementary, robust event management service and a tool to immediately establish presence at one of the country's most prestigious universities, with access to thousands of students enrolled in MIT's top-ranked undergraduate engineering programs.

Simulating an Eventbrite-type experience, student groups use Umeqo as a free tool to organize career fairs, create events, track RSVPs and share student resumes with companies that are looking for the right student talent to hire. Joshua Ma, managing director of Techfair and MIT Engineering Senior, said, "Using Umeqo saves hours and hours of painful administrative work while giving companies a powerful tool to pick out the right students to contact."

According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), U.S. Engineering graduates were the highest paid majors in 2012, with average starting salaries of $70,400. Students are leveraging the opportunities, responding to demand by increasingly running their own career events and creating their own career opportunities by facilitating student and company meetings. NACE calculates there are 10,510 career fairs held annually at 4-year institutions in the U.S. In February, Techfair and MIT's TBP Career Fair, MIT's most popular tech career events, will both rely on Umeqo to manage the connections before and after the events. Companies looking for student talent that matches their culture's needs for innovation and who want to hire MIT students or find the right students to hire from colleges and universities nationwide, can learn more at www.umeqo.com.

Readyforce is making Umeqo free to all U.S. students who want to set-up and manage their own events to attract more career opportunities to their campuses.

"With remarkable success, leading companies used Readyforce in 2012 to find the nation's top college talent. Umeqo gives Readyforce clients even more ways to discover talent and more choices, as they can assess more students and access a growing pool of talent. Umeqo empowers students, and we're making it free to motivated students and groups eager to capitalize on demands for their talents with events that bring the career opportunities home -- to their own campuses and their own students and graduates," said Readyforce CEO, Alex Mooradian.

Umeqo's founder and MIT senior, Dmitrij Petters built the platform with the help of five students, from MIT and the University of Waterloo, Joshua Ma, Zachary Dearing, David Guo, Arkady Blyakher and Joshua Dhaliwal. Petters recognized the need in his own market for an easy way for students and companies to connect online. Through Readyforce, Umeqo becomes a nationwide free tool that makes it easy for students everywhere to create events that connect their students with companies seeking talent to hire and acquire. "Dimitrij had already established himself as a leader in the growing community of college entrepreneurship," said Julie Deroche, Head of University Talent at Greylock Partners. "Assessing the niche market, coding an early product prototype, launching it and building a company around it while in college is incredibly impressive. With the sale of Umeqo to Readyforce, he's moved into a different strata. He's a role model for the most innovative, technical talent currently at our nation's college campuses."

As part of the acquisition, Dmitrij Petters joins the Readyforce Advisory Board to help raise visibility of the combined Readyforce/Umeqo platform at MIT and other universities. "I'm excited to see Umeqo as part of the industry-leading Readyforce brand and look forward to its bringing cutting-edge recruiting tools to students and companies across the country," said Dmitrij.

Though Readyforce and Umeqo will continue to operate separately for the foreseeable future, long term plans are to integrate the two sites under the Readyforce brand.

About Readyforce
Readyforce, the leading career network for college students, is the easiest way for students to launch amazing careers. Focusing on engineering students in 2013, the Readyforce network connects students to influential business leaders, powerful campus programs, engaging networking events, and exciting jobs and internships at cool start-ups and innovative companies of all sizes. Readyforce is backed by Menlo Ventures, US Venture Partners, Pivot North, Founder Collective and First Round Capital.
www.readyforce.com

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