PhysicsWallah Turns 101th Indian Unicorn With $100 Million Fundraise

Edtech firm PhysicsWallah has raised $100 million (about Rs 777 crore) in series A funding from Westbridge and GSV Ventures at a valuation of $1.1 billion, the company said on Tuesday. 

With this development, the firm has become India's 101st unicorn and the first edtech player to achieve the milestone in the series A funding round.

PhysicsWallah (PW) plans to utilise these funds for business expansion, branding, opening more PW learning centres, and introducing more course offerings, the edtech startup said in a statement. 

PW claims to have 5.2 million Play Store downloads with a 4.7 rating and 6.9 million subscribers on YouTube.

"We are delighted to join the unicorn bandwagon with this latest funding. 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..." PW founder and CEO Alakh Pandey said in the statement. 

PW 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.

"The company has been profitable since inception with positive cash flows and reserves. Our revenue grew 9-fold in the year 2021-2022 vis-a-vis 2020-2021. Our current run rate for FY2023 is at $ 65 million," Pandey said. 

The platform claims that at least one student in six medical and one in ten engineering colleges in India are PW alumni.

"PW is one of the rare startups with a profound understanding of the education that Bharat today needs. The founder's focus on learning outcomes of students excites us and we look forward to a long partnership with them," WestBridge Capital managing director Sandeep Singhal said.

As part of its upcoming growth plans, PW is gearing up to launch educational content in 9 vernacular languages, including Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, Odia, Malayalam, and Kannada. 

"The core idea behind this step is to reach every corner of the country and connect with over 250 million students by 2025. The firm looks to bridge the accessibility gap by opening 20 offline coaching classrooms, aka Pathshala, across India. PW has established more than 20 centres across 18 cities with more than 10,000 students enrolled for the 2022-2023 session," the statement said.