Indian edtech startup Physics Wallah ended its first day as a public company on a high, with its shares closing 44% higher than they were listed, indicating that the country’s edtech sector can still bounce back after years of gloom.
Priced at ₹109, the company’s shares rose as high as ₹161.99 before closing at ₹156.49, valuing it at ₹448 billion (about $5 billion). This is well above its valuation of ₹315 billion (about $3.6 billion) and about 79% higher than its last private valuation of $2.8 billion in September 2024.
Physics Wallah raised ₹34.8 billion (about $393 million) in the IPO. Of this, ₹31 billion (about $350.1 million) came from a new share issue, while ₹3.8 billion (about $42.9 million) of shares were sold by co-founders Alakh Pandey and Prateek Boob, who together owned about 80% of the company before the listing.
The strong IPO underscores the company’s remarkable growth arc from its humble beginnings as a YouTube channel run by Pandey in 2016. It now stands out in an industry otherwise plagued by layoffs, a funding drought and the collapse of once-competitor Byju’s. Today, the company offers test preparation and skill-upgrading classes through its website, apps, and offline centers.
The company’s rise comes as its biggest rivals struggle to operate. Byju’s, once India’s most valuable startup at $22 billion, has been mired in a corporate governance crisis, fighting legal battles with lenders and facing a severe cash crunch that has forced mass layoffs. The Bengaluru-based startup is currently in insolvency proceedings in both India and the US
Unacademy, another high-profile edtech, has also sharply scaled back operations and cut staff and is reported to be in talks acquired by upgrader platform UpGrad for $300 to $400 million — a steep drop from its $3.44 billion valuation in 2021.
In fiscal year 2025, Physics Wallah he said Its revenue rose 49% to ₹28.9 billion (about $326 million) from last year, while its net loss narrowed to ₹2.4 billion (about $27.5 million) from ₹11.31 billion (about $127.7 million). Online channels accounted for 48.6% of operating revenue, while offline centers contributed 46.8%. The company also reported 4.5 million paying subscribers, up 23% from last year.
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“It’s a good milestone to have the IPO coming our way,” Pandey said during the company’s IPO ceremony in Mumbai. “But the mission and the vision have a long way to go.”
Physics Wallah plans to deploy most of its IPO proceeds to expand offline centers, strengthen its technology stack and fund potential acquisitions. The company has already aggressively expanded its offline footprint and currently operates 303 centers across 152 cities in India and the Middle East as of June 2025, up from 182 last year.
