PhysicsWallah files updated DRHP with Sebi for Rs 3,820 crore IPO

BENGALURU: Edtech company PhysicsWallah Ltd has filed an updated draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India for an initial public offering of Rs 3,820 crore.

The issue will comprise a fresh equity raise of Rs 3,100 crore and an offer for sale of Rs 720 crore by promoters Alakh Pandey and Prateek Maheshwari (Prateek Boob in official filings), who will each sell shares worth up to Rs 360 crore. The equity shares are proposed to be listed on both BSE and NSE. Kotak Mahindra Capital, JP Morgan India, Goldman Sachs India and Axis Capital are the book-running lead managers. MUFG Intime India is the registrar.

According to the filing, PhysicsWallah reported continued growth in the year ended March 2025. Revenue from its online business rose 45.5% year-on-year to Rs 1,404 crore, supported by 4.13 million unique transacting users compared with 3.40 million a year earlier. Offline revenue increased 45.7% to Rs 1,352 crore as the number of centres expanded from 126 to 198 and enrolments rose to 3.3 lakh from 2.3 lakh. Revenue from other segments, including advertising and B2B sales, grew 173.6% to Rs 131 crore. Sales of books and merchandise rose 74% to Rs 259 crore. The company also booked Rs 28 crore in income from licensing education content for use in training artificial intelligence models.

Direct expenses increased 35% to Rs 513 crore, driven by higher faculty fees, student support services and server costs. Hostel and kitchen expenses also rose with the increase in student enrolments.

PhysicsWallah was incorporated in June 2020 after founder Alakh Pandey’s YouTube teaching channel, launched in 2016, gained traction among students. The Noida-headquartered company has expanded into test preparation, skills training and international markets. Its subsidiaries include iNeuron, Xylem Learning, Utkarsh Classes and Penpencil Edu Services.

In September 2024, the company closed its largest funding round of $210 million led by Hornbill Capital, with Lightspeed Venture Partners, GSV Ventures and WestBridge Capital participating, valuing it at $2.8 billion. At the time, co-founder Maheshwari had told TOI that PhysicsWallah planned to hire about 1,000 employees across functions over six to nine months, taking its workforce to 15,000. Despite successive rounds of fundraising, the founders continued to hold about 85% of the company’s equity.

The listing plans come at a time when other edtech players are under pressure. Byju’s is undergoing insolvency proceedings, while others have turned to offline formats. According to a Redseer report commissioned for the IPO filing, PhysicsWallah’s marketing spends in FY24 stood at about 10% of revenue, compared with an average of nearly 18% for top peers such as Unacademy, UpGrad and Eruditus.