Intern Avenue
Recruitment platform connecting employers with student interns.
| Date | Investors | Amount | Round |
|---|---|---|---|
| investor | €0.0 | round | |
N/A | Acquisition | ||
| Total Funding | 000k | ||
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Intern Avenue was a recruitment platform designed to connect employers with students and graduates for paid internships. The company, founded in London, United Kingdom in September 2010 by Dupsy Abiola, aimed to streamline the intern hiring process. By December 2014, the platform had registered approximately 2,000 employers and 40,000 intern applicants in the UK. The service utilized a data-based scoring system and predictive profiling to match suitable candidates with employers, aiming to reduce hiring time and costs.
The founder, Dupsy Abiola, is an Oxford University-educated, former barrister who was inspired to start the company after experiencing the difficulties of entry-level recruitment firsthand at her law firm. Her personal experience, combined with seeing her sister struggle to find a suitable placement after university, sparked the idea for a centralized online platform. Abiola successfully pitched the business on the BBC show Dragons' Den, securing offers from investors Peter Jones and Hilary Devey, making it the first recruitment business to do so. The company raised an undisclosed amount over two seed rounds, with investors including Angel Investment Network, Seedrs, and other angel investors.
Intern Avenue's business model focused on providing a free service for students and graduates while presumably charging employers for access to their curated talent pool. The platform was recognized with several awards and Abiola was named one of the most influential black businesswomen in Great Britain. In December 2017, Intern Avenue was acquired by Bright Network, a careers network for graduates. Following the acquisition, Abiola transitioned to a new role as Global Innovation Officer for the International Airlines Group (IAG) in January 2018. The Intern Avenue website became defunct as of January 2023.
Keywords: intern recruitment, graduate hiring, student internships, recruitment platform, talent matching, entry-level talent, career services, paid internships, Dupsy Abiola, Dragons' Den, Bright Network, student employment, graduate jobs, online matchmaking, human resources technology, HR tech, UK startups, workforce solutions, youth unemployment, early careers