PhysicsWallah is eyeing buys to up UPSC test-prep business

Edtech firm PhysicsWallah is evaluating acquisitions to strengthen presence in the lucrative Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) test preparation segment, people in the know said.

“PhysicsWallah is in the process of valuing various assets in the IAS-training space, including Chaitanya Academy, Drishti IAS and Rau’s IAS Study Circle, for a potential acquisition,” one of the persons briefed on the developments said on condition of anonymity. “The company is getting almost seven to eight such assets valued for a potential acquisition. It will use part of its recently raised primary funding to fund these acquisitions… currently the deal structure that is being proposed is through performance linked payment in tranches.”

PhysicsWallah is currently focused on the JEE (engineering) and NEET (medical) segments within the test prep market. It has more than 150 offline centres catering to aspirants preparing for these exams. The company offers coaching for almost three dozen examinations. UPSC and chartered accountancy are among its recent additions, where it is starting to witness traction.


PhysicsWallah did not respond to ET’s emailed queries.

Last year, the Noida-headquartered company raised the largest funding round for an edtech firm in the country when Asian hedge fund Hornbill Capital and venture capital firm Lightspeed led a $210 million round valuing PhysicsWallah at $2.8 billion.

Its founders, Alakh Pandey and Prateek Maheshwari, had told ET in November 2024 that the capital from the round would be used “to expand its offline presence, diversify into new regions and potentially look at acquisitions”.

Online news publication Entrackr earlier reported about PhysicsWallah being in discussions with Drishti IAS for an acquisition.

The WestBridge Capital and GSV Ventures-backed startup filed its IPO papers with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on March 19 under the pre-filing route, which allows companies to submit a confidential prospectus. Food and grocery delivery firm Swiggy had also made its initial filing under the confidential route, just as wearables maker Boat did on April 3. Through its IPO, PhysicsWallah is looking to raise Rs 4,000 crore in fresh capital from the offering at a valuation of Rs 35,000-40,000 crore, people said.

Earlier this year, PhysicsWallah also closed a secondary transaction, led by existing investor WestBridge Capital, which saw shares worth $20-25 million change hands. The deal saw a buyback of some Esops as well as early individual backers exit their position in the company.

Barring 2023-24, PhysicsWallah has been a profitable venture, and while it was founded in 2016 as a YouTube channel, it raised its first round of funding six years later, in 2022. The company said earlier that its external funding would primarily be deployed towards acquisitions.

In 2023, PhysicsWallah acquired artificial intelligence-based platform Xylem Learning for entrance exam preparation and the UAE-based Knowledge Planet, which provides test prep services to non-resident Indians. A year earlier, it entered the upskilling segment with the acquisition of iNeuron. It also bought doubt-solving platform FreeCo in 2022, which was its first purchase.

In 2023-24, the company’s revenue topped the Rs 2,000-crore mark on a consolidated basis, and it exceeded Rs 4,000 crore in 2024-25, said a person in the know. The majority of the company’s revenue still comes from its own operations as its acquisitions contribute a miniscule percentage, the person said. It is likely to have returned to being profitable in 2024-25, after it turned in a loss a year earlier – primarily because of a one-time non-cash expense pertaining to the revaluation of its preference shares.