Campus, a for-profit community college with a mission to make higher education more accessible, has raised $46 million from Silicon Valley heavyweights like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, Joe Lonsdale’s 8VC and Sigma’s Dylan Field.
The Series B investment, announced today (March 20), was led by venture capital firm General Catalyst and brings Campus’ total funds to more than $100 million. “Campus has created a model that is rooted in the rigor and legacy of American higher education with the benefit of technology and innovation that students will require to thrive in an increasingly competitive global economy,” said Ken Chenault, General Catalyst’s chairman, in a statement.
Founded by tech entrepreneur Tade Oyerinde in 2022, Campus offers live, online courses through two-year associate degrees and certifications across fields like business administration, technical support, cosmetology and medical assisting. It even provides an applied A.I. concentration degree. Campus claims that the availability of A.I.-related jobs has increased by more than 70 percent in the past five years.
Marketed as an affordable and digital-focused alternative to four-year college degrees, the company’s programs boast tuitions of $7,200 per year—a fee that is covered by students eligible for full Pell Grant awards. The average annual cost of attending an in-state public college is around $11,000—a figure that rises to $43,000 for private colleges.
The financial strain of higher education has increasingly taken a toll on young learners. Student loan debt in the U.S. currently totals at nearly $1.8 trillion, while average student loan balances come out to $38,000. Altman, who in 2023 co-led an $29 million funding round for Campus, has previously pointed to the student debt crisis as one of the reasons why America’s higher education system is “nearer to collapsing than it appears.”
Professors benefit too
It isn’t just students that Campus is hoping to aid. Oyerinde, who formerly founded the college software platform Campuswire, was partially inspired to launch Campus as a way to provide additional income for university professors. The company’s lecturers include a roster of more than 100 teachers, many of whom also teach at acclaimed schools such as Princeton, Stanford (Altman’s alma mater) and Howard University.
After completing Campus courses, the company says it will help its students join the workforce or transfer into four-year colleges. Past graduates have gone on to continue their studies at the likes of New York University, Penn State and the University of California, San Diego.
“It’s really simple,” said Oyerinde in a statement. “In America we should have elite education for everyone—everyone should be able to learn from the top professors in the country, develop useful skills and then go on to use those skills to create a great life for themselves.”
