Campus: by students for students

Interview with Yulia Yegorova, founder of the educational ecosystem "Kampus":

Who came up with the idea for the startup, and why this area of technology?

The authors of the concept are me and Kirill Laskin. The idea to create a service that simplifies the learning process came to us when we were students ourselves and faced difficulties in our studies.

At HSE, it wasn’t easy. The hardest subject was advanced mathematics — not only were the problems challenging, but the pace of instruction was stressful, and there was too much theoretical terminology, including in online courses. It took a lot of time to understand the material and find answers to questions. At HSE, as in many universities, you could be expelled for failing grades. I decided to turn things around after my first poorly written test. At HSE, freshmen are assigned mentors — senior students who help them adapt. While talking to my peers, I found out that many struggled with advanced math, and the mentors recommended an upperclassman who was giving group lessons.

I began attending his sessions twice a week. There were up to 15 people per group, and each session cost around 500 rubles. He explained the material in simple terms and gave clear analogies. Once I started to understand the material in these lessons, the lectures made much more sense.

Extra tutoring helped me ace the winter exam. I continued preparing that way for the summer session. Kirill had similar struggles, but he didn’t have access to such courses, so to close his academic gaps, he reached out for help to a fellow classmate, Vlad Salnikov.

Kirill and I discussed my experience and decided to organize this type of prep for all interested students.

Where and how did you get started, and what resources did you have in the beginning?

It was a true startup in the most real sense — no office, no big staff. But it was important to us to understand what students really needed. In the summer of 2020, Kirill and Vlad ran a test advanced math class at MISIS, attended by 160 people. Salnikov taught the lesson.

At first, we attracted students via word of mouth, trying out different models. One of the formats — “pay what you want” — didn’t work out since students said they liked the lessons but didn’t have money. We eventually landed on a subscription model for courses.

Lessons were held in MISIS for about a year, income was small: students paid 1,000 rubles or more, and per semester we’d make about 20,000 rubles. The teacher earned about 30,000 rubles. Salnikov was paid 40-50% of profits.

As the number of courses grew, we added physics, which proved popular among first-year students. The courses helped save time on prep and provided a structured approach to solving sample exams.

After the successful start at MISIS, at the end of 2021, Kirill and I decided to scale the idea to other universities. We recorded video lessons and launched online marketing. Spending was small: about 10,000 rubles per week on marketing, and we invested our own money. I was working as a project manager at Citymobil, and Kirill was a product owner at SberTroyka. By mid-2022, Matklab offered eight courses with about 40 students enrolled. Video lessons were uploaded to a website made by Kirill’s neighbor for 10,000 rubles and a pack of pu’er tea, and to a VK group.

In 2021, Matklab started collaborating with “Kampus” — an app from Novosibirsk studio IceRock, featuring class schedules and teacher reviews. Kirill and I reached out to the app creators and arranged ads: we paid 100 rubles per lead, and this channel brought a large number of affordable leads.

At the end of 2022, Matklab received a 1-million-ruble grant from the Innovation Promotion Fund by winning the “Student Startup” competition. These funds went to expand the team, develop a new website, and marketing. At the same time, Kirill and I took part in pitch events and talked to experts. Investors valued Matklab at 40 million rubles, but we found that low and started thinking of ways to increase the valuation.

Kirill and I thought it would be a good idea to buy "Kampus", since the app was already popular. After the acquisition, we began actively connecting new universities and establishing official partnerships. Just recently, for instance, we integrated with Irkutsk State Transport University.

We weren’t concerned that "Kampus" mostly got schedules from open sources — the app was convenient and used by thousands of students. In 2023, Kirill presented Matklab at Investor Day in Skolkovo. Afterwards, we met with investors from the jury. Soon, we managed to raise 10 million rubles, including from “Avtomakon,” Egor Gogolev, and another business angel. We used these funds to acquire the “Kampus” schedule app, and its owners got minority stakes in our company. Legally, we still remain Matklab LLC. That summer, we rebranded: the educational courses became “Kampus Courses” and were integrated into the unified “Kampus” ecosystem. The deal closed in October 2023, and by the end of the second half of the year, course sales had tripled to 3 million rubles.

In autumn 2023, we offered 11 courses. To record new video lessons, we mainly hired students, but in spring 2024, we started hiring professional teachers. Chemistry, Strength of Materials, and Econometrics are taught by highly experienced specialists because these subjects are quite complex. We search for teachers on platforms like Profi and Avito, and often recruit student teachers through the schedule feature.

The course pricing model also changed. We moved away from the old subscription model and now focus on more flexible solutions for universities and partners — the main emphasis is now on B2B. At the same time, the courses remain affordable: training is six times cheaper than private tutors. We continue adapting the format for different audiences and needs to help as many students as possible master challenging subjects.

In 2024, "Kampus" continued to receive investments. In the spring, we held a bridge round that included Igor Zhaborovsky, founder of the "InfoUrok" educational platform, and members of the Investoro community led by President Vitaliy Polekhin, whom Kirill met at Skolkovo's Investor Day. We’re not disclosing the deal amount.

Beyond courses, "Kampus" makes money from advertising student-friendly products such as master’s degrees from Central University, other educational courses (for example, Skypro), as well as promoting various services including Russian Railways and the Pushkin Card.

We offer a premium subscription that removes ads, grants access to teacher reviews, and unlocks closed posts in the “Overheard” community where students share their experiences. The monthly subscription costs 99 rubles.

In 2024, we launched an HR direction to work with partner companies for recruiting the top talent from universities. Users can store their resumes and indicate their interests, and employers get the warmest responses to their listings. We also introduced an AI-powered resume builder for students.

Our partners include InfoUrok, Yandex, Sovcombank, Bastion, Kontur, JTI, KexT, T1, Rostelecom, the Naimix service, as well as leading job boards: Jobi, SuperJob, and others.

We’re not afraid of competing with large companies. There’s plenty of competition, but no one else can attract people to niche areas as quickly as we can.

What were your financial resources?

At the beginning, we funded the project ourselves; it was important for us to start small and check the demand. We started out in the university canteen and in our kitchen — in quite limited conditions.

Financially, investments were minimal, and in terms of labor, it was just the two of us. Kirill handled the technical side, and I was responsible for operations and marketing. We learned everything on the go, constantly working and upskilling.

What technical challenges did you face?

The main technical problem for us now is connecting new universities quickly. Right now, we’re integrating about two universities per week on average, but our goal is to reach ten. The app itself was originally available on two platforms and didn’t present difficulties in terms of user experience — the main challenge remains scaling the ecosystem.

Why did you decide to seek investment, and how did you connect with KAMA FLOW?

To expand the project and improve quality, extra resources were needed. For us, this was a logical step. In searching for investors, we approached KAMA FLOW because they support startups in education and tech, and it was important for us that we not only receive funding, but also expert support.

KAMA FLOW supported us not just with funding, but also on organizational matters. They helped us optimize our processes, and I believe they’ve helped us significantly accelerate our project’s growth.

Where are your technologies used, and are they more advantageous than foreign alternatives?

Our product is tailored for the Russian educational system and really helps students. We see that our solution is more cost-effective than foreign analogues, as it focuses more on practical student support.

What are your prospects now?

We plan to scale up in the HRTech direction: not just classic recruiting, but also by developing digital faculties, co-created with teachers and partners. This will allow educational institutions to connect with students faster and receive high-quality responses.