CampusKnot, a startup by Indian students gets $100,000 funding in US

An educational technology startup, founded by three Indians and a German student in a US university, has received a whopping USD 100,000 funding from a private investor. CampusKnot, the online educational hub founded by three Indian students Rahul Gopal, Hiten Patel and Perceus Mody, and German student Katja Walter at Mississippi State University, has been designed to increase collaboration among faculty and students.

The USD 100,000 funding by an unnamed investor from the Gulf Coast, has set a record for private investment in a student-run startup at the MSU, Clarion-Ledger newspaper reported. Free to users, the site is a clearinghouse for schedules, assignments and other academic events. It also offers a marketplace for textbooks, including a feature making them searchable by title, subject and author's name.

CampusKnot debuted in 2013. Since then, creators spent two years refining their project at MSU's Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the College of Business. Gopal and his co-founders hope that the CampusKnot eventually will serve as a single site for students to easily reach teachers and classmates, residence halls and student organisations plus offer space for faculty to post course syllabi and related academic material.

The completed site would also allow students to access automated calendars based on their network groups. Gopal is a senior aerospace engineering major while Patel graduated from MSU in 2013 with a degree in information systems and is pursuing a second degree in marketing. Mody is a senior majoring in medical technology while Walter graduated in May with a degree in art and graphic design.

Though still in a testing phase, the company currently is recruiting student leaders and faculty members to form focus groups for a soft launch of the site this fall. "We are not looking to have a job; we are looking at creating jobs and helping to solve educational problems," Patel said.

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