Over the last year, CampusTap has successfully brought back the idea of a college-only social network — the startup's $500,000 in seed funding, announced Monday, serving as proof.
Several Boston angel investors participated in the round, including Douglas Leighton, co-founder of hedge fund Dutchess Capital, and Bob DeMaria, partner technical account manager at Rally Software. The financing, according to the team, will be used to hire additional engineers, who will support product development, specifically that of the startup's pending mobile app.
CampusTap launched in August 2013 at Suffolk University, the alma mater of CEO and Founder Remy Carpinito. The goal was to bridge the gap between on-campus activities and employment, by providing students with events, volunteer opportunities, internships and jobs relevant to them. The startup's recommendation engine has since been able to help students plan around their desired career earlier, while providing administrators with the information they need to better serve their students and increase involvement through targeted on- and off-campus events.
"We repeatedly hear from schools that the changing Facebook algorithm is making it difficult for university posts to be seen by students," shared Carpinito in a statement.
CampusTap has then capitalized on Facebook long since abandoning its college-only focus. The startup's open architecture allows data to be passed from third party sources to streamline communication between administrators and students.
"[Colleges] were having a struggle reaching students on the typical social stream," said Carpinito in a September BostInno interview, when he shared that $380,000 of the startup's $500,000 seed round had been raised. "Student communication is really a hard thing for them right now, and we're streamlining it."
CampusTap is now working with Suffolk and MIT, and was selected as a finalist for MassChallenge's summer 2014 class. In the new year, the startup will be exploring additional partnership opportunities with Boston-area universities, as well as releasing its mobile app.
Image via CampusTap
