Sam Altman Backs EdTech Startup Campus to Make College Affordable for Millions

Campus, the online accredited two-year community college with a mission to deliver debt-free degrees, has just secured $46 million in fresh funding. Led by General Catalyst, the Series B round saw participation from an impressive roster of investors, including Sam Altman, Founders Fund, 8VC, Discord founder Jason Citron, Bloomberg Beta, Rethink Education, and others. This latest capital injection brings Campus’s total funding to over $100 million.

Founded in 2021 by entrepreneur Tade Oyerinde, Campus is setting out to challenge the bloated cost structure of American higher education. The institution offers associate degrees through a hybrid model of live online instruction and in-person learning hubs, keeping tuition at approximately $7,000 per year far below the national average, which ranges from $11,000 to $43,000 annually. With federal Pell Grants covering the full cost for most students, Campus is not just affordable; for many, it’s effectively free.

Student loan debt has skyrocketed to nearly $1.8 trillion, and critics argue that traditional universities have failed to adapt to the needs of modern students. Sam Altman, who co-led a $29 million funding round for Campus in 2023, has long warned that America’s higher education system is unsustainable. He’s not alone in his concerns. Investors like Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and Jason Citron have also backed Campus, recognizing its potential to disrupt a sector in dire need of reform.

Oyerinde is blunt about the problem. “The goal, the mission of Campus—if you think about it—over the last 30 years, as four-year universities have become so expensive, today almost half of all undergrads will start off at a community college. And community colleges, when they work, are awesome… but they often don’t work,” he said. “Sixty-eight percent of students who go to community college will never graduate, and unfortunately, they will leave with an average of $55,700 in debt.”

Campus has positioned itself as an alternative that actually delivers results. The institution employs over 100 educators, many of whom also teach at Ivy League and top-tier universities like Princeton, Stanford, and Howard. Unlike pre-recorded online courses, Campus provides live, interactive classes. “Most people need more motivation, more accountability, more interactivity and engagement than asynchronous learning affords,” Oyerinde argues. “Live online is the holy grail that no one had really executed on.”

Every student is paired with a success coach, a concept Oyerinde likens to “a professional Nigerian mother who’s logging into your classes, checking your grades, making sure you’re getting your assignments in.” Students receive free laptops and Wi-Fi, along with mental health counseling, a benefit many traditional colleges fail to offer at scale.

Unlike pre-recorded online courses, Campus provides live, interactive classes taught by professors from prestigious institutions like Princeton, UCLA, and NYU. “Most people need more motivation, more accountability, more interactivity and engagement than asynchronous learning affords,” Oyerinde argues. “Live online is the holy grail that no one had really executed on.”

Another key differentiator is transferability. Many students lose a third of their credits when transferring from community college to a four-year institution. “It’s a slap in the face,” Oyerinde says. “You took Calculus I, passed with an A, but you have to retake it? It’s not productive.” To counter this, Campus has signed guaranteed admissions agreements with institutions like Arizona State University and Butler University. Students maintaining a 2.5 GPA (or 3.0 for Butler) are automatically admitted as juniors with full credit transfer.

Campus’s financial structure is just as deliberate as its educational approach. “Most adjuncts are the Uber drivers of higher education,” Oyerinde says. “They earn so little—25% of adjuncts live on at least one welfare program.” While traditional universities pay adjuncts $4,000–$5,000 per class, Campus pays $8,000. How? By streamlining administrative costs through software and enrolling roughly 100 students per class.

“If you actually have better graduation rates, better persistence and retention rates, your lifetime revenue per student goes up,” Oyerinde explains. “If your customers are leaving out the door, what are you going to do? You’re going to try everything to stop them. And when you do that, your revenue per student goes up.”

Beyond affordability and instruction, Campus takes a holistic approach to student success. Every student is paired with a success coach—a concept Oyerinde likens to “a professional Nigerian mother who’s logging into your classes, checking your grades, making sure you’re getting your assignments in.” Students receive free laptops and Wi-Fi, along with mental health counseling. “We provide every student with mental health counseling,” he emphasizes.

Besides General Catalyst, Campus’s latest funding round attracted support from Figma founder Dylan Field, Max Altman, Joe Lonsdale, Shaquille O’Neal, Notion founder Akshay Kothari, and many others. Previous rounds, including the $29 million Series A and a $23 million extension in 2024, were spearheaded by Sam Altman and Founders Fund.

Oyerinde sees Campus as more than just a school. “Are we a tech company or are we a college? We’re both, but man, if that’s not hard to get across to people,” he admits. His title Chancellor reflects that duality. The company recently struck a deal with Forever 21 to provide free classes for employees, a move that could pave the way for more corporate partnerships.

When asked about Sam, he says “Sam Altman—this guy’s crazy,”. He described how Altman, who attended community college before Stanford, was immediately drawn to the idea. Their first meeting happened on a Monday, followed by a week of texts and Zoom calls. By Thursday, Altman had already committed to investing, telling Oyerinde that he had been looking for exactly this kind of concept.

Elite education doesn’t have to be expensive. Campus is built on the belief that every student should have access to top professors, gain valuable skills, and build a successful future without taking on debt. “If we win and every American gets to acquire skills and knowledge with no debt, that’s a completely different country,” Oyerinde says.