PhysicsWallah, the unassuming underdog among edtech firms in India

While its rivals battled to stay afloat, PhysicsWallah has recorded consistent growth since the pandemic

After reaping the fruits of the online learning model brought about by the pandemic, Indian edtech firms have been left reeling as the funding winter gripped the startup ecosystem this year. Many large firms underwent tumultuous organizational restructuring, accompanied by heavy layoffs, in a bid to tackle losses.

However, one unassuming player has emerged unscathed among the dozens that took a dive this year. Edtech unicorn PhysicsWallah (PW) reported a fourteen-fold increase in net profit in FY22 at Rs 97.8 crore. This was up from Rs 6.93 crore in the previous financial year. Further, the firm reported its standalone operating revenues for the financial year 2021-22 as Rs 234.09 crore, a nine-fold rise from Rs 24.62 crore in FY21.

Amid the funding winter in 2022, 15,216 employees have been laid off by 44 startups, including unicorns, according to staffing firm TeamLease. Edtech firms have led the charge, with 14 of these startups sacking 6,898 employees this year.

For instance, SoftBank-backed edtech major Unacademy, last month, announced it was laying off 350 people or 10 per cent of its 3,500-employee workforce. In April, the firm had laid off another 1,000 people. Unacademy’s chief rival Byju’s also announced the layoff of nearly 2,500, or 5 per cent, of its 50,000 employees as part of an “optimization” plans amid steep losses.

While its rivals battled to stay afloat, PW has recorded consistent growth since the pandemic.

The brainchild of Alakh Pandey and Prateek Maheshwari, PW started its journey in 2014 as a YouTube channel to coach JEE and NEET aspirants. Fast forward to today, it has scaled into India’s 101st unicorn, preparing students for multiple competitive exams, including GATE, UPSC, NDA, and CA.

The firm achieved its coveted unicorn status by raising $100 million in Series A funding from WestBridge Capital and GSV Ventures, after which the company was valued at $1.1 billion.

“Over the years, we have grown significantly in the edtech space, and are on the journey to becoming ‘Bharat ka education platform.’ The success is accredited to our hardworking team and their intact focus on innovation,” said Alakh Pandey, founder and CEO, PW.

“All our courses have recorded impressive traction and love from students, and we have also launched new courses to meet their demands. These growth figures demonstrate our conscious efforts toward transforming education in India. We will continue to follow this philosophy and strive to bring more innovations in this ecosystem,” he added.

PW offers both free and paid online courses to students. Students can avail these paid offerings for the affordable price of Rs 4,000 a year. The firm provides offline and hybrid coaching through its Vidyapeeths and Pathshalas respectively across the country.

“In June, we launched our purely-online centre called Vidyapeeth. We started the first one at Kota, where we are currently teaching 30,000 students. We have seven other centres in Patna, Kalu Sarai, Janakpuri, Kolkata, Kanpur and Lucknow,” Abhishek Mishra, chief strategy officer (CSO) of PhysicsWallah (PW), had tol Business Standard earlier.

The company offers educational content available in 9 languages, including Hindi, English, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, Odia, and Kannada.

The brand has over 12 million subscribers across 27 YouTube channels and more than 7 million app downloads on Google Play Store. PW has also launched upskilling courses for students and working professionals to learn in-demand skills.

In October earlier this year, the company acquired test preparation edtech company PrepOnline and book publisher Altis Vortex for an undisclosed amount in a mix of cash and stock deal. With the acquisition of PrepOnline, PW forayed into the online competitive exam preparation segment and the acquisition of Altis Vortex marked its entry into the book publishing domain. Before that in August, PW acquired FreeCo, a Jaipur-based doubt solver and resource management firm.