Online startup launches in beta after positive response from graduates and employers

Gradberry, the Middle East’s first social recruitment portal connecting students, graduates and employers, launches today. Within a month of its soft opening, the start-up has reached out to a network of more than 2,800 youth across the region and successfully recruited graduates for multinationals and SMEs in the UAE.

Conceptualised by recent graduates, the online startup primarily caters to internship vacancies for students and entry-level positions for university graduates with 0-2 years of work experience. Gradberry launches in a bid to encourage employers to hire fresh graduates and curb youth unemployment in the region, which is the highest in the world at 24%. The youth form 63% of the population of the Middle East and are nearly three times as likely as adults to be unemployed.

The 1.0 Beta version will be available to all students and graduates by the end of this week. “We’re in the process of sending priority access invites to early registrants. Our aim is to create a continually evolving portal, based on feedback from graduates and employers, and plans are already in place to launch new features next month,” said Iba Masood, Gradberry co-founder and CEO.