Entrepreneur Tade Oyerinde has raised $29 million for his national online community college startup, Campus.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Discord founder Jason Citron led the investment push in a $29 million Series A round for Campus, which was first reported by Forbes.

According to Forbes, other investors in the round include: Figma founder Dylan Field; former head of Stripe, Lachy Groom; Bloomberg Beta; Founders Fund; Rethink Education; Reach Capital and Precursor Ventures.

“You have these amazing professors, but they earn so little, and they’re suffering,” Oyerinde told Forbes. “And the students, the quality that they’re getting at a local community college isn’t always the best. So how can we help resolve both those concerns?”

While most online universities generally serve working professionals, Campus caters to a younger student demographic, with an average age of 20. To enhance the study experience, the college provides laptops, Wi-Fi, and extensive support services.

Campus is essentially bringing the gig economy to higher education, allowing students to reduce the cost of a bachelor’s degree by spending less time at a college for a four-year program.

A year of tuition at Campus costs around $7,000, which is fully covered by a Federal Pell Grant for those who qualify, minimizing borrowing costs for students, especially those of colour.

Education data suggests a four-year state college costs an average of $26,000 per year, while private universities cost an astounding $55,000 per year.

This load is exacerbated for individuals of colour, with statistics showing that the average Black student borrower still pays 95 per cent of their original loan 20 years after starting college.

Likewise, it supports professors, who are often priced out of the housing market due to low wages, and allows them to make a living salary.

According to Oyerinde, campus instructors are paid about $8,000 each class, which is roughly double the national average for adjunct academics.

Classes typically have 60 students and are held two or three times a week to accommodate work schedules. More than 1,500 students have applied in the first quarter of 2023, according to Forbes.

“Our core focus is on building a solid foundation over the next year so we can meet the growing demand,” he told Forbes. “It’s really important to us that we have a solid foundation in place before thinking about scale.”

The New York-based startup went into beta last year. It includes 800 students from 30 states and over 150 staff members from colleges, including Princeton, Spelman, and Vanderbilt.

Moreover, a portion of the venture capital funds raised by Campus was utilized to acquire MTI College, a private, for-profit community college in Sacramento. Michael Zimmerman, a third-generation MTI owner, has remained Campus president.

“To put together a synchronous, live, quality education that has all these wraparound supports — the tutoring, mental health support, the laptop, the Wi-Fi — to do all that and to do it with students that qualify to not have to take on any debt,” Zimmerman told Forbes. “That’s the Holy Grail for education, in my opinion. If we can do that (and) prove that we can get to a scale where that’s feasible, I know my grandparents would be looking down with pride.”