CampusKnot, a platform designed to help universities modernize classroom engagement, student retention, and course participation, has raised $1,100,000 in new funding led by Tulane Ventures, with participation from Boot64 Ventures, Invest Mississippi Impact Fund, Momentum Fund, Greaux Innovation Ventures, and angel investors.

Founded by Rahul Gopal, CampusKnot focuses on solving one of higher education’s most persistent problems: student disengagement. Instead of serving as another LMS or grading platform, CampusKnot positions itself as the engagement layer - where attendance, interaction, incentives, communication, and course participation all live in a single structured system.

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Why Student Engagement is a Growing Crisis for Universities

The academic landscape has changed dramatically over the past decade. U.S. college enrollment has declined by more than 2.6 million students since 2011, driven by financial pressures, shifting demographics, and post-pandemic learning fatigue. Meanwhile, student completion rates remain stagnant, with only 62% of U.S. students graduating within six years.

More critically, disengagement is becoming a leading predictor of dropout risk. Universities report:

• Students who miss participation milestones are five times more likely to withdraw
  
• First-year disengagement is responsible for nearly 40% of total dropout losses
  
• Institutions lose billions annually due to retention-based revenue declines
  

Institutions now recognize that retention is no longer an academic issue - it’s a financial and operational one. With the global higher education software market projected to exceed $40 billion by 2030, platforms that can quantify engagement are becoming essential infrastructure.

CampusKnot is tackling that problem directly by tracking behavior, not just academic output.

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Why Student Engagement Matters Now

The landscape of higher education is rapidly shifting:

• College enrollment in the U.S. has dropped by over 2.5 million students in the last decade
  
• Online and hybrid learning now accounts for over half of total postsecondary enrollment
  
• Universities increasingly depend on retention metrics to secure funding and accreditation
  
• Institutions report that disengaged students are 5x more likely to withdraw before graduation
  

Education is becoming a competitive market - and institutions that cannot keep students engaged risk long-term decline.

CampusKnot provides a way to measure student consistency, not just academic output.

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A New Insight: Engagement Is a Leading Indicator of Outcomes

What makes CampusKnot strategically significant isn’t just that it tracks attendance or participation - it treats engagement as the causal engine behind student success, not a passive metric.

Most education platforms measure outcomes only after performance appears: grades, dropout rates, test scores.

But behavior changes long before performance does.

Students don’t fail when their exam scores drop - they fail when their academic habits silently deteriorate: fewer check-ins, longer response gaps, reduced participation, missed micro-deadlines.

Platforms that detect and influence this early behavioral decay give institutions leverage. And platforms that embed those systems across courses - not isolated classrooms - become part of the university’s infrastructure.

That’s the strategic advantage: the system that shapes behavior becomes harder to replace than systems that merely record outcomes.

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A Market Ready for Behavioral Operating Systems

Several macro trends are accelerating demand:

• Hybrid and online learning now make up over half of college course enrollments
  
• Edtech investment is rebounding, expected to reach over $600 billion globally by 2030
  
• Universities allocate increasing budget to retention rather than recruitment
  
• Behavioral analytics in education is growing at above 20% annual CAGR
  

Meanwhile, student success initiatives are becoming essential for accreditation, state funding, and institutional ranking. Universities must now demonstrate measurable support systems rather than passive learning environments.

This explains the shift from content tools to habit-forming engagement platforms - exactly where CampusKnot positions itself.

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Backed by Strategic and Education-Aligned Investors

This funding round includes a mix of institutional and education-focused backers:

• Tulane Ventures, tied to academic innovation networks
  
• Boot64 Ventures, supporting scalable SaaS models
  
• Invest Mississippi Impact Fund, backing regional tech development
  
• Momentum Fund & Greaux Innovation Ventures, supporting early-stage infrastructure plays
  

The combination of regional and thematic investors suggests a path toward adoption across public universities, regional colleges, and state-wide education systems.

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What CampusKnot Plans Next

With its new capital, CampusKnot plans to:

• Expand across universities, community colleges, and hybrid programs
  
• Build predictive analytics for at-risk students using behavioral patterns
  
• Deepen integrations with LMS systems rather than replacing them
  
• Strengthen tools that support large-scale lecture environments
  
• Expand into corporate learning and workplace training
  

The long-term vision is to become the engagement operating layer, bridging student behavior, instructor workflows, and institutional success metrics.

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Why It Matters

Higher education institutions don’t fail because of poor curriculum - they fail because they lose momentum with the students who could succeed.

CampusKnot isn’t building a tool for classrooms; it’s building infrastructure for engagement, habit-building, and long-term academic persistence.

As universities compete not just to enroll students, but to retain them, platforms like CampusKnot may define the future of institutional success.