Executive search firm Venor has bought the assets of Equals6, a career-focused social network for students, for an undisclosed price.

Halifax-based Equals6 was designed to be a place where students could discuss career prospects, as opposed to other social media sites, which tend to be more about lifestyles. Students can communicate with one-another, or with companies that pay to join the site.

Started by Co-Founders Craig Coady and Ian Sullivan, Venor now plans to use Equals6’s Students2Mentors product to develop a resource for young people getting started on their career path. Overseeing the new division will be Chantal Brine, who has been the Venor executive in charge of youth career advancement for the past year.

“Venor has an established reputation for placing qualified candidates in challenging and rewarding positions,” Brine said in a statement. “We are taking that same standard of excellence to helping new talent in our province’s students prepare for and find meaningful employment.”

Mobivity Buys Livelenz, Signals Growth

Equals6 was developed by entrepreneurs Andy Osburn and Mark Boyle, who oversaw its steady growth over the past five years. Meanwhile, the pair was also working on SecureReset, which has developed two products for simplifying user passwords and authentication. Last November, Osburn and Boyle sold SecureReset to Atlanta-based Courion and signaled that they were also in talks to sell Equals6.

In buying the assets of Equals6, Venor plans to use Students2Mentors to link students with mentors in their field of interest. A cloud-based, automated and customizable platform, the tool enables students, mentors and university administrators to create mentorship programs and track their success.

The statement said Brine would bring her experience in organizational change, human resources, community relations, entrepreneurship and technology to help students and graduates to transition to the workforce. She is already collaborating with academic institutions to further develop Students2Mentors.

Venor said Equals6 has already impacted more than 13,000 students and 125 employers from across North America.

“We see firsthand the challenge of employers who want to attract the right talent and grow businesses here,” said Sullivan. “We want to do our part to support the call of the One NS Coalition and the Ivany Report to act. Rather than standby idly on the sidelines, we have created a focus solely on building a stronger and more inspired youth talent pool in Nova Scotia.”

Innovacorp, the innovation agency owned by the Nova Scotia government, invested $250,000 in Equals6 in 2012 through a convertible debenture. Since the company never raised follow-on funds the debenture would never have been converted to equity.

“Innovacorp anticipates repayment of our debenture and, while we can’t share the commercial terms of Venor’s license of the E6 platform, one can infer that Equals6 derives revenue from that partnership,” said Innovacorp Managing Director Greg Phipps in an email.

Equals6 is the second Innovacorp portfolio company to announce a major deal recently. Livelenz, which received $1.4 million in investment from the agency, recently sold out to Chandler, Arizona-based Mobivity Holding Corp. for less than $1 million in stock in a bid to grow with the larger company.