Edtech company Physics Wallah (PW) has raised a whopping $210 million in its latest Series B funding round. This investment was led by Hornbill Capital, with participation from well-known investors like Lightspeed Venture Partners, GSV, and WestBridge.

With this fresh round of funding, Physics Wallah’s post-money valuation has skyrocketed to $2.8 billion, more than double its previous valuation of $1.1 billion from its Series A round. During that earlier round, the company had raised $100 million.

The company has big plans for this new funding. According to a press release, Physics Wallah will use the money to scale operations and strengthen its presence in the education market. This includes expanding into the K-12 segment, improving their content offerings, and exploring mergers with other education platforms that focus on building communities. They also plan to expand inorganically through possible acquisitions.

Physics Wallah’s founder and CEO, Alakh Pandey, expressed excitement about the funding, saying, “This investment validates our efforts to democratize education and make quality learning accessible to every student in India. It’s a testament to the impact we’ve made over the years.”

Growth and Offerings

Physics Wallah, founded in 2020 by Alakh Pandey and Prateek Maheshwari, has grown rapidly in the edtech space. The company offers online and offline courses as well as study materials for competitive exams like JEE, NEET, and various state board exams. It has also ventured into areas like skilling, higher education, and study abroad programs.

One of its key offerings is the Institute of Innovation (IOI), which provides 4-year residential programs designed to make students job-ready.

Origins as a YouTube Channel

Physics Wallah started in 2014 as a simple YouTube channel offering free educational content. Since then, it has grown into a massive platform, with over 46 million students across 112 YouTube channels. These channels are available in five regional languages, making education more accessible to students in various parts of India.

The company’s app has been downloaded more than 30 million times, and it boasts 5.5 million paid students.

Financial Performance

In terms of revenue, Physics Wallah has seen impressive growth. In FY23, its revenue jumped 3.3 times to ₹779 crore. However, despite the revenue growth, the company’s profit took a hit, dropping by more than 90% to ₹8.87 crore.

While Physics Wallah hasn’t released its financial results for FY24 yet, the company is confident that it will reach ₹2,000 crore in revenue for the fiscal year.

Edtech Funding Trends

Physics Wallah’s funding round comes at a time when investment in the edtech sector has slowed down. According to data from TheKredible, edtech startups in India raised only $160 million across 27 deals in 2024 so far. This is a significant drop compared to previous years: in 2023, the sector raised $456 million, while in 2022 it secured $2.3 billion, and in 2021, a massive $5.8 billion was invested in edtech companies.

In the midst of this slowdown, Physics Wallah’s ability to raise $210 million shows that it continues to be a strong player in the Indian edtech market.