PhysicsWallah Raises $210 Million For Inorganic, Offline Growth
This marks a 2.5x jump over its last valuation of $1.1 billion. The funding round was led by Hornbill Capital, with participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners, GSV and WestBridge.
Edtech major PhysicsWallah Pvt. has raised $210 million or about Rs 1,750 crore at an upgraded valuation of $2.8 billion, or about Rs 23,400 crore, to expand its offline presence and pursue inorganic expansion.
This marks a 2.5x jump over its last valuation of $1.1 billion. The funding round was led by Hornbill Capital, with participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners alongside existing investors, GSV and WestBridge.
This current funding is like "comfort capital to support in-house innovation," co-founder Prateek Maheshwari told NDTV Profit in a conversation. "We already have surplus cash of the last funding round with us."
In December, PhysicsWallah turned unicorn with a $100 million fundraise through a series A funding round from investors like WestBridge Capital and GSV Ventures.
The company is now looking to expand its offline presence and will look at inorganic expansion to grow. "Currently, we don't have any guided targets to acquire and partner with us. But we will explore good assets available in the market," he said.
The edtech also plans to open 40 new Vidyapeeth centres in new and existing cities, with an expansion of its residential Vidyapeeth centre in Varanasi on the cards. Further, Maheshwari said there will be new category expansion in test prep. "In two years, we've gone beyond just JEE-NEET and become the highest online revenue company in UPSC, CA, Commerce, CAT preparations. These categories have become profitable for us," he said.
PhysicsWallah is one of India's rare profitable edtech unicorns, having posted a consolidated revenue from operations of Rs 771.7 crore with an adjusted Ebitda of Rs 127 crore in FY23. For FY24, the financials of which have not been filed yet, Maheshwari said revenue has jumped 2.5x from FY23.
"FY24 was a year of hypergrowth for us. The current focus is on student net promoter score and sustainable growth. So far in FY25, revenue is up by 50% compared to FY24. The first two quarters of FY25 have been profitable for us," he said.
Edtech unicorn PhysicsWallah has forayed into offline primary education, with the launch of its first school in Gurugram.
In February this year, the Alakh Pandey-led startup inaugurated its first K-12 institute, a PW Gurukulam school, which will provide elementary education from pre-nursery up to class 7.
