Campus Pipeline Adds $25M to Curriculum

Campus Pipeline Inc. has developed an online portal that expedites several administrative tasks faced by college students, allowing them to focus on college essentials, such as pizza and Jerry Springer.

The company operates a portal that integrates more than 400 university databases, allowing students to electronically enroll, register for classes, buy books and participate in chat groups. The Salt Lake City-based company raised $25 million August 16 in its second round of venture financing.

Oak Investment Partners led the Series A round, which was oversubscribed by a factor of 10, said Chief Executive Chad Muir. Campus Pipeline received strategic investments from Dell Computer Corp. and Internet infrastructure developer Inktomi. Inktomi CEO David Peterschmidt also contributed a personal investment.

Additional first-time investors in the round included Amerindo Investment Advisors, Hambrecht & Quist affiliate Access Technology Partners LP, C.E. Unterberg Towbin, Thomas Weisel Partners, McKinsey & Co and a group of private investors led by Jim Mattei. Muir had worked as a consultant for McKinsey before joining Campus Pipeline earlier this year.

University intranet developer SCT Corp., which invested $3.75 million in Campus Pipeline last December, exercised its option to invest an additional $3.75 million for a 60% equity stake in the company.

“We can now move much faster in signing up schools and building out functionality,” Muir said. “We will continue to bring as many players to the platform as possible.”

Additional proceeds will be used for acquisitions. Muir said the company does not allocate much capital to marketing expenses because of promotional agreements formed with universities.

SCT, which installs intranets in nearly 50% of colleges with an enrollment of more than 2,000 students, served as the catalyst that attracted further venture commitments.

“Online access to the SCT student information system is the anchor application that gets eyeballs coming into the site on a regular basis,” said Oak General Partner Fredric Harmon. “The cost of creating that community of users and replicating that recurring traffic pattern would be enormous in the absence of the SCT relationship.”

Harmon added that Campus Pipeline will form strategic relationships with other Oak portfolio companies including Exodus, InterNAP, theStreet.com and Avenue A.

Muir said the company’s next round of financing will likely be in the public markets and did not provide a timetable for a possible public offering.

“We will focus like crazy on execution and let things like IPOs take care of themselves,” he said.