From Youtube To A Billion Dollar Edtech: Here's How Physics Wallah Became India's 101st Unicorn
Six years after starting as a youtube channel in 2016, the online edtech platform Physics Wallah has become India's 101st unicorn with its maiden funding round of $100 million.
At a time when some of India¡¯s top edtech unicorns are facing a slowdown in funding and looking at ways like layoffs to curb costs, the online education platform Physics Wallah has brought some good news.
Physics Wallah has raised $100 million in its maiden funding round, making it the latest edtech to enter India¡¯s unicorn club. The company is valued at $1.1 billion as per a statement yesterday, as per an ET report.
Other edtech unicorns in India include the likes of Byju¡¯s, Unacademy, Eruditus, Vedantu, UpGrad and Lead School.
The edtech startup Physics Wallah, also referred to as PW, plans to utilise the funds for business expansion, branding, opening more offline learning centres, and introducing more course offerings, it said in a statement.
Founded by Alakh Pandey and Prateek Maheshwar in 2016 initially as a YouTube channel, Physics Wallah prepares students for competitive engineering and medical entrance examinations. The two co-founders reportedly developed the application and website in 2020.
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The newly minted unicorn caters to more than 6 million happy students as per its website.
It is also planning to launch educational content in 9 vernacular languages, including Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, Odia, Malayalam, and Kannada. The core idea behind this is to reach every corner of the country and connect with 250 million students by 2025, the company said.
¡°This latest development will help us further our vision and implement new initiatives to augment the learning journeys of students, thereby enabling them to reach new heights in their careers. Our commitment remains that every dollar spent in Physics Wallah is for the greater good of learners,¡± Alakh Pandey, co-founder of Physics Wallah said.
As per a report in Moneycontrol, Edtech unicorn Unacademy had made an offer of a whopping Rs 40 crore per annum to hire Physics Wallah co-founder Alakh Pandey a few years ago. But he had reportedly rejected the offer.
Physics Wallah specialises in giving comprehensive lectures and sessions on YouTube as well as distributing it through its proprietary Physics Wallah app and the website for students aspiring to take National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) and Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) mains.
Besides YouTube and applications, it also runs 20 offline centres across 16 cities, as per the ET report.
Profitable Since Inception
¡°The company has been profitable since inception with positive cash flows and reserves,¡± said Alakh Pandey. ¡° Our revenue grew nine-fold in the year 2021-2022 vis-a-vis 2020-2021. Our current run rate for FY 2023 is at $65 Million,¡± he added, as per ET.
The edtech startup currently has 1,900 employees, including 500 teachers and 90-100 tech experts. It also has 200 associate professors available to answer student queries and another 200 professionals to create exam questions and term papers, as per the ET report.
Also Read: 90 Founders Amongst 500 US Unicorns Were Born In India
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